Of course, if they live near Austin, the kids are riding around in 107 degrees. I rode around all summer in the 90's, (and sure, 98% humidity near Houston.)
I think another aspect to this is the depth video games titles have taken on. My childhood routine was school, play outside, wash up, dinner, homework, and play my regular Nintendo. At that time, there was no saving and you just kind of played Mario or whatever until you ran out of lives and hit Game Over. I look at the stuff the kids are playing now, like this new Zelda game, and it is LONG and never ending. I takes 100+ hours to get through it, it's no wonder they are opting to stay inside and advance on the game then crawl through the neighborhood culverts like I used to do.
Yeah, entertainment used to be finite. Now it's endless and more complex than real life. That's a new development.
This is a good point. Would you rather chase a crawdad or play an immersive game experience with colors and pictures literally brighter than real life. You can even mow the lawn or ride bikes in these games, no need to go outside. This is one of the main reason my kids don't have a switch, ipad, phone, nada. I used to play my playstation when they were babies and then when they showed interest, I just turned it off.
Thank you ID Network for scaring the crap out of us all. I am definitely not a helicopter parent, but I'm also not at the stage where I'm going to just tell my 11 year old boys to go outside and we'll see you at dinner time. I wish I could but I just can't yet. Luckily we live on a cul de sac where I can tell them to do anything they want as long as they stay on the street. I will VERY DISCREETLY look out the window every now and then to make sure they're still there. And we have a big backyard with a pool, trampoline, 10-foot basketball goal and even a makeshift batting cage that I (sort of) built. So plenty for them to do outside and they're out there all the time when it's below 120 degrees. My biggest fear is getting hit by a car. Everyone in Kingwood drives gigantic SUVs that they can barely see over the hood when they're driving. And the street that's connected to my cul de sac has a 30mph speed limit but no one follows it. Just last week, a kid was hit while riding his bike home from school. He had to go to the hospital and the driver stopped....but left before the cops showed up. They are still looking for him. As they get older, I will let go of the reins more and more. Just not ready to do it all at once.
This is mostly behind me now. I'm more of a go-play parent, but the kids didn't want to go out much and I faced some friction from other parents/neighbors too. Kids are getting to driving age, so the main question now is curfew. Had a funny disagreement with my mother when the kids were a bit younger because she was worried about the kids heading out for some night time walk. My brother called her out on it because when he and I were the kids' age, we were roaming the streets in big gangs, jumping over neighbors' fences, wandering to other neighborhoods and a bunch of other crap that'd get you shot or arrested today. She was a laid back parent back then, but hovering more as a grandparent.
Wifey Those are sex offenders. These people live in our neighborhood. @Ubiquitin We'll skip their houses when we're trick or treating. What do you want me to do? Form a posse? Wifey You shouldn't take it so lightly. Ubiquitin I don't take it lightly. I'm not going to go over to any of these people's houses and say, "Hey, you mind? Can you baby sit?" Wifey If I didn't care about these things, you wouldn't care about anything. Care more. Ubiquitin You're so concerned with stuff, like don't get them vaccinated, don't let them eat fish. There's mercury in the water. Jesus, how much "Dateline NBC" can you watch? Wifey I know we're supposed to be nice with each other right now, but I'm having a really hard time. I'm struggling with it right now. Ubiquitin What am I doing? Wifey Because I want to rip your ****ing head off because you're so ****ing stupid! This is scary. These are our children. You ****ing dip****! Ubiquitin I literally am at a point where I don't know what I can say. Wifey So I'm the bad guy because I'm trying to protect our kids from child molesters and mercury? And you're cool because you don't give a ****? Ubiquitin Yeah. Wifey "Yeah"? Is that it? Ubiquitin Pretty much. Wifey God, you're an a$$hole. Ubiquitin Don't do this in front of Ben. Wifey I don't give a **** about Ben. Ubiquitin Sorry, Ben. BEN It's okay. I didn't think she did, anyway.
Ours came in the evening before the lights came on...we all knew that meant time to go home 30mins early. Ours also didn't spray DDT (although I've got great stories about that stuff), they fogged the streets with [unknown DOW Chemical X265] and sprayed it down into the storm drains.
I was driving by a local stadium and there were some random dudes out there playing soccer in 102 degree heat. Even when Messi came thru, his match was around 7-8pm, I think, but the temps were still around 100-101. These soccer dudes seem to be in shape and/or insane.
I'm a Millennial and remember all the kids on my street would play outside unsupervised outside until it got dark. It was like that in my old neighborhood. In the early 2000s, we moved to my mom's current house further out of the city and things were quiet and I rarely saw kids outside anymore, which I hated at the time.
This post made me do a sex offender search. First hit (no kidding): P.S.: 4th hit was Michael Jackson (not that one, but...)
