From a young age, I was allowed to leave the house by bike and be home by dinner. I still have scars from that, but, you know, it’s not really terrorizing.
Let us contrast this with whatever the fuck passes for parenting these days.
We’re buying the concept that parents can’t raise their own kid, and thus the government needs to step in.
Well, some are. But seriously, the past 40 years of destroying critical thinking worked.
There are few reasons to be thankful for being 46. We don’t exist in the media, and we’re somehow never mentioned. Boomers … Millennials. Um, you missed a step.
This is not an issue in the Netherlands. There are not giant vehicles, kids have autonomy at a younger age, and society is structured around allowing family and play time. Infrastructure allows kids to visit friends and play safely. Kids can run off and do anything, adults rarely intervene. Its a kid paradise compared to the US today and is more aligned with the 80s and 90s you describe in the US. I remember those times too. But its not perfect here either.
There is a line between autonomy and trauma. A kid is free to make a decision, but also free to suffer horrendous consequences without any empathy or adult support to help them recover. At least in my experience. For instance, a kid did not bring gloves to school and thus was not prepared for a sudden sleet storm in the ride home. Asking for help and telling people they were in pain and scared only to be responded to with the dutch equivilant of suck it up kid - you aren’t made of sugar. Thats trauma for damn sure that will come back to guide their actions as an adult.
There has to be a balance, and I fear many peoples are not meeting it.
Interesting perspective. And yeah, having functioning transit and infrastructure changes the calculus.
But I’m going to push back on the trauma point. I had such moments growing up, and the net result was making sure I had my gloves in the future to avoid a repeat.
That’s a fair push back. I would counter that the line between lesson learned and “I’ll never forget and am angry about it” is a fine one. Deeper conversation, though.