Where has childhood gone.

Those who 'care' about children seem to think that the only thing acceptable for children is to be constantly watched by adults, and stay inside their home, lest they come to incredible harm.

I have not seen the world get more dangerous in my 50 + years of life, and it just blows my mind that children have no childhood anymore.  Many go from daycare to home to activities with never a free moment to do whatever they want. Children aren't allowed to be outside without an adult, EVER. Not even within eyesight of the front porch of the house even.

At least this is what happened in Austin Texas.  She got told to keep her children INSIDE. Wow.

At 6 I used to walk to school alone, go to the grocery store, bakery and even bank alone. The bakery and the park near it were almost 1km away. I also took the bus alone to my ballet lessons. I also walked 2km to get to the nearest pool for my swimming lessons.

I lived alone with a single mom, who worked full time, had me to take care of and wasn't in the best of health and didn't drive. If I had extra curricular activities I had to get there by myself, and I had to help her with chores. We did groceries once a week wtih my grandparents. Whatever was missing from that I had to run to the nearest grocery store to pick up. Sometimes I used to deposit my mom's paycheck into her bank account.  Or go get fresh bread at the bakery. She'd always tell me not to gnaw at the bread, but by the time I got home I'd eaten the 2 ends of the bread. 

I suspect part of the reason she sent me on errands was because I was so hyper. and living alone with my mom I always wanted to help. I wasn't much helpful underfoot but I had endless amounts of energy and was extremely resourceful. So running errands was a win-win for my mom. 

Hell I've been known to tell people I was helping my mom by playing outside. Why? Cause while I was outside she could actually get cleaning done inside!

I'm glad I managed to give my daughters some childhood. One of the places I lived after their dad and I split up was on the edge of some wooded area, and there was 3 parks for them to play in within walking distance [less then 1 km away], I had told them they could go into the forest as long  as they could still see the buildings, I figured they couldn't get lost that way. It took them very little time to get to know the forest and not get lost. At least they got to play alone, without adults like childhood should be.