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When did kids stop playing outside

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lefty louie

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When I was kid growing up in the 60's and 70's we played in the streets all the time, baseball, boxball, football, soccer, tag, manhunt, punchball, stickball, you name it we did it. If it snowed we'd grab a sleigh or a cardboard box if we didn't own one and ride down the hills, as we got bigger we'd grab hold of a car bumper and ski all over the city.

So when did kids stop doing what was everyday fun and enjoyment for my generation and why?
 
Plenty of kids still play outside; you're making it seem like all our generation does is stay cooped up inside. I used to always go play outside with the boys on my street when I was little. And I had no problem keeping up with them.
 
lefty louie said:
When I was kid growing up in the 60's and 70's we played in the streets all the time, baseball, boxball, football, soccer, tag, manhunt, punchball, stickball, you name it we did it. If it snowed we'd grab a sleigh or a cardboard box if we didn't own one and ride down the hills, as we got bigger we'd grab hold of a car bumper and ski all over the city.

So when did kids stop doing what was everyday fun and enjoyment for my generation and why?
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Several decades of fear-mongering and helicopter parenting...combined with zealots calling Child Protective Services every time they saw kids outside playing or wandering without adult supervision.

Add to that all the new technology keeping kids isolated (even when sitting with each other) and home-bound while they play "games" or "chat/text/skype" on their various electronic gadgets.

Some kids still play outside, albeit often with some kind of supervision...but there are also many rural areas where parent's haven't fallen for the Helicopter parenting meme.
 
lefty louie said:
When I was kid growing up in the 60's and 70's we played in the streets all the time, baseball, boxball, football, soccer, tag, manhunt, punchball, stickball, you name it we did it. If it snowed we'd grab a sleigh or a cardboard box if we didn't own one and ride down the hills, as we got bigger we'd grab hold of a car bumper and ski all over the city.

So when did kids stop doing what was everyday fun and enjoyment for my generation and why?
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Kids starting watching more TV, more mothers went to work, schools started offering more extracurriculars, there was more traffic, more reports of missing children. There just came a time when parents started organizing and overseeing their children's playtimes.

The old days were fun, no doubt. But my parents used to take us to the beach for the day and we would all come home lobster red baked in the sun. No one ever heard of sunscreen. Maybe there was still an ozone layer back then, not sure. The kids stood up in the back seat of the car...not a seat belt in sight. Some parents even let the kids stick their head out the window of the moving car. There were playgrounds that had spinning things and climbing things that no insurance company would ever allow now. We have a nearby park, that has a playground in the middle of the park. There is a fence around the playground with signs stating that NO ADULT without a child is permitted on the premises. So in some ways the world has gotten scarier, or we became more scared.
 
lefty louie said:
When I was kid growing up in the 60's and 70's we played in the streets all the time, baseball, boxball, football, soccer, tag, manhunt, punchball, stickball, you name it we did it. If it snowed we'd grab a sleigh or a cardboard box if we didn't own one and ride down the hills, as we got bigger we'd grab hold of a car bumper and ski all over the city.

So when did kids stop doing what was everyday fun and enjoyment for my generation and why?
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I'd say the trend really kicked up during the great console wars of the 90's. Once the PS2( Sixth Generation Console Gaming) came about, "playing outside" was officially dead. Videogames didn't have the negative social stigma, genuine social interactions could take place via the 'net, and parents could relate to the games their kids were playing.
 
TheGoverness said:
Plenty of kids still play outside; you're making it seem like all our generation does is stay cooped up inside. I used to always go play outside with the boys on my street when I was little. And I had no problem keeping up with them.
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Key words there. I think he's talking about when kids used to play outside by themselves. Go out into the "wild" and the parents not seeing them until its just getting dark when dinner just gets on the table.
 
TheGoverness said:
Plenty of kids still play outside; you're making it seem like all our generation does is stay cooped up inside. I used to always go play outside with the boys on my street when I was little. And I had no problem keeping up with them.
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Well of course I can only speak for the areas I roam through somewhat regularly, so I'm speaking of Northern NJ but I suspect it's a bit more widespread then that. You don't say when you were a kid/teen, but you did make it into a competition on how you kept up with the boys, so proud of you for keeping up, yay!

So let's get off of you and back on topic, where and when are you talking about so maybe we can narrow it down or be proven wrong. Remember though, this is just an observation from where I am.
 
Kal'Stang said:
Key words there. I think he's talking about when kids used to play outside by themselves. Go out into the "wild" and the parents not seeing them until its just getting dark when dinner just gets on the table.
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Well, my parents never hovered over me like a hawk. They let me go outside, I just had to tell them where I was gonna go, and that I had to come back once the street lights turned on. But I did used to have a friend who's parents were kinda crazy about where he was every waking second of the day.
 
lefty louie said:
When I was kid growing up in the 60's and 70's we played in the streets all the time, baseball, boxball, football, soccer, tag, manhunt, punchball, stickball, you name it we did it. If it snowed we'd grab a sleigh or a cardboard box if we didn't own one and ride down the hills, as we got bigger we'd grab hold of a car bumper and ski all over the city.

So when did kids stop doing what was everyday fun and enjoyment for my generation and why?
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My neighborhood is full of kids out on bikes and playing in empty fields. Not sure why yours is different.
 
lefty louie said:
Well of course I can only speak for the areas I roam through somewhat regularly, so I'm speaking of Northern NJ but I suspect it's a bit more widespread then that. You don't say when you were a kid/teen, but you did make it into a competition on how you kept up with the boys, so proud of you for keeping up, yay!
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I'm still a teen, actually. I'm 19. I used to play outside a lot when I was like middle-school age. And thanks. :)

So let's get off of you and back on topic, where and when are you talking about so maybe we can narrow it down or be proven wrong. Remember though, this is just an observation from where I am.
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I live in the Houston area, and we used to play around all the time. Usually just around our street, but plenty of times we went farther than that, especially when we were riding our bikes around. My parents let me go out as long as I stayed near the surrounding area. And even as I kinda grew out of playing outside all the time, I still see plenty of kids playing outside in my neighborhood.
 
Doesn't it depend on where you live?
 
lefty louie said:
When I was kid growing up in the 60's and 70's we played in the streets all the time, baseball, boxball, football, soccer, tag, manhunt, punchball, stickball, you name it we did it. If it snowed we'd grab a sleigh or a cardboard box if we didn't own one and ride down the hills, as we got bigger we'd grab hold of a car bumper and ski all over the city.

So when did kids stop doing what was everyday fun and enjoyment for my generation and why?
Click to expand...

We have a small community playground on our street. Not entirely sure who owns it, but kids play on it all day everyday, even during really cold days in the winter. There's also a larger park near me kids go to the roller rink there.
 
lefty louie said:
When I was kid growing up in the 60's and 70's we played in the streets all the time, baseball, boxball, football, soccer, tag, manhunt, punchball, stickball, you name it we did it. If it snowed we'd grab a sleigh or a cardboard box if we didn't own one and ride down the hills, as we got bigger we'd grab hold of a car bumper and ski all over the city.

So when did kids stop doing what was everyday fun and enjoyment for my generation and why?
Click to expand...

I was so far out in the boonies that I dearly loved Pong - yes, it was Pong - because there were almost no other kids to play with. Oh, I had epic World Series games bouncing a rubber ball against the wall...but I was the only one there. So I grew up without many friends at all. That's why now - even though I'm 55 - I still greatly enjoy first-person shooters like Fallout 4 or Skyrim, and strategy games like Civ V. And I enjoy forums like this where I don't have to deal with the social scorn that I did when I was a kid. Don't get me wrong - I would have loved to have other kids around me to play games like you listed...but there weren't any.
 
lefty louie said:
When I was kid growing up in the 60's and 70's we played in the streets all the time, baseball, boxball, football, soccer, tag, manhunt, punchball, stickball, you name it we did it. If it snowed we'd grab a sleigh or a cardboard box if we didn't own one and ride down the hills, as we got bigger we'd grab hold of a car bumper and ski all over the city.

So when did kids stop doing what was everyday fun and enjoyment for my generation and why?
Click to expand...

Back in my day.......yawn....

Kids still play outside.
 
Glen Contrarian said:
I was so far out in the boonies that I dearly loved Pong - yes, it was Pong - because there were almost no other kids to play with. Oh, I had epic World Series games bouncing a rubber ball against the wall...but I was the only one there. So I grew up without many friends at all. That's why now - even though I'm 55 - I still greatly enjoy first-person shooters like Fallout 4 or Skyrim, and strategy games like Civ V. And I enjoy forums like this where I don't have to deal with the social scorn that I did when I was a kid. Don't get me wrong - I would have loved to have other kids around me to play games like you listed...but there weren't any.
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Same here. We always, always lived out in the country. It was just my parents' preference. There were never any kids around to play, so we just rode our bikes, caught tree frogs, climbed trees, etc. My brother got an Atari 2600 for Christmas one year, and we thought that was the greatest thing in the world. Clearly, based on the Atari comment, I am not much younger than you.
 
Kids still play outside - at least in in the rural and suburban areas that I am familiar with. Perhaps not as much as when I was younger (I was born in 1954) but we did not have the vast array of television channels, computer games and tech gizmos to use as solo alternative entertainment. I never lived in a city (after age 5) so I have no idea what that was like then or now.
 
Superfly said:
Same here. We always, always lived out in the country. It was just my parents' preference. There were never any kids around to play, so we just rode our bikes, caught tree frogs, climbed trees, etc. My brother got an Atari 2600 for Christmas one year, and we thought that was the greatest thing in the world. Clearly, based on the Atari comment, I am not much younger than you.
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I used to catch geckos. Fun times.
 
Superfly said:
Same here. We always, always lived out in the country. It was just my parents' preference. There were never any kids around to play, so we just rode our bikes, caught tree frogs, climbed trees, etc. My brother got an Atari 2600 for Christmas one year, and we thought that was the greatest thing in the world. Clearly, based on the Atari comment, I am not much younger than you.
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No, not much younger...but you're still 18. All girls are! (and the drinking age for all girls is 18 after they turn 21)
 
beefheart said:
Back in my day.......yawn....

Kids still play outside.
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My dad thought us kids never played outside, despite doing so daily. We could come in to warm up from building a snow fort, and he would bitch that kids these days....
 
Glen Contrarian said:
No, not much younger...but you're still 18. All girls are! (and the drinking age for all girls is 18 after they turn 21)
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Let's not open that wound.

As a teenager, I couldn't wait until I turned 18, so I could legally drink.

I turned 18 on October 29.

On October 1, the state upped the legal drinking age to 21.

FML.
 
Superfly said:
Let's not open that wound.

As a teenager, I couldn't wait until I turned 18, so I could legally drink.

I turned 18 on October 29.

On October 1, the state upped the legal drinking age to 21.

FML.
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What a sad day. But wouldn't it be worse if you got to drink for one day, then they suddenly upped it 3 more years?
 
Superfly said:
Let's not open that wound.

As a teenager, I couldn't wait until I turned 18, so I could legally drink.

I turned 18 on October 29.

On October 1, the state upped the legal drinking age to 21.

FML.
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First belly-laugh of the day! Thanks! Reminds me of how I was never able to grow a beard in my first couple years in the Navy...but when I finally got old enough to grow one, they outlawed them. I never grew a proper beard until a little over two years ago....
 
Glen Contrarian said:
First belly-laugh of the day! Thanks! Reminds me of how I was never able to grow a beard in my first couple years in the Navy...but when I finally got old enough to grow one, they outlawed them. I never grew a proper beard until a little over two years ago....
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:lol:

Life really sucks. Hard.
 
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