Ah, the nostalgia of my 80s childhood. Anyone who has ever watched “The Goonies” or “Stranger Things” knows that children of all ages are largely free to act on their own terms most of the time, and their parents, even if they have a role, are in the background. You’ve probably seen them in action. The kids spent hours and hours of unsupervised outdoor adventures, getting into enough trouble to learn a lesson, but (usually) not enough to kill them.
But was this really what childhood in the ’80s was like? Did the parents really not go that far? Did children really roam free like they are depicted in movies and stereotypes? Were people really not worried about what their children were doing when no one knew where they were and didn’t have a cell phone to check in?
Someone asked that very question, and the overwhelming response pointed to a clear answer.
Yes, kids in the 80’s really had a childhood that is unimaginable now
“Did parents in the ’80s really let their kids roam free? Or is that just a depiction seen in movies?” X user OThingstodo he asked. The top answers are:
“Really. And it was awesome.”
“Fact. We are a self-raised generation. In fact, there were commercials every night asking parents if they knew where their children were. I lived by eating things (berries, fruit trees, etc.). ) We were not allowed to sit inside… If we tried to sit, we were truly a wild generation… We took no courage to new heights, no glory, no at all. I wasn’t afraid of anything. It still makes me feel nostalgic from that little memory.”
“This is true. And sometimes we had to make our own TV show dinners. And our parents were always involved with us or making sure we weren’t bored.” There was no need.”
“Permission? We couldn’t go into the house during the day. We had bikes and friends. There were three rules: 1: Don’t get hurt 2: Don’t get taken back by the police 3 ：Do you see that light? If you see it.” You were late and the flight was cancelled. ”
“In the summer, they used to go home when the streetlights came on. They were raised with water from a hose and left alone. It was wonderful.”
“My friends and I were wandering through the sewers in town. It was just a few people and a flashlight.”
“Yes, I rode my bike everywhere to explore reality. There were unlicensed lemonade stands, and after they were sold out, I would ride my bike to the store by myself and buy snacks by myself. I had the key to our house and stayed there.”I was home alone after school, and we had no one to cook for us. ”
“We left the house after school and they didn’t notice us until the streetlights came on. They didn’t ask where we were or what we were doing. We were 70 Grew up with hose water and neglect in the 80’s and 80’s.
“It was in the ’90s. They told us to be home by ___ o’clock for dinner or before nightfall. They didn’t know where we were. We didn’t really have any way of knowing. This was just the norm…and cell phones.”
“That’s true. Back then there were no cell phones, no video games, no 24-hour children’s TV, etc. You wanted to be with your friends, and that was outside, even in the winter. Bicycles were your precious There were bad elements back then, but it was different than it is now.
Regarding the last point, many people said, “There were bad elements back then, but they weren’t as bad as they are now.” Let’s dig a little deeper into that.
It’s easy to look at the past through rose-colored glasses
For the most part, everything people say about their 80s childhood is true, except: do not have It was safer back then. The “bad elements” did not decrease, but neither did crime.
Around 2015, articles started coming out about how children were statistically safer than ever before.
In fact, statistically speaking, the 1980s few Safer in almost every way. watching Heavy hoarfrost statistics since 1960 We can see that the violent crime rate in the 1980s was significantly higher than in the 2000s. The idea that Gen X’s childhood was carefree and fearless is simply false. We were unaware of all there was to fear.
Social media and 24-hour cable news networks expose us to horrific things all day every day, giving us a distorted perception of reality. And it’s not just a guess —According to Pew Research CenterAmericans tend to think crime is increasing, even though it’s decreasing. “in 23 of 27 Gallup polls conducted since 1993At least 60% of U.S. adults say crime has increased nationally from the previous year, even though crime rates have been on the decline for most of the period. ”
Those who remember our free-range childhoods as blissful and safe seem to forget that we began pouring milk from cartons with pictures of missing children on them. . Several high-profile child abductions and murders caused a bit of a missing child panic in the United States, and President Reagan signed the Missing Children Act of 1982 and the Missing Children Assistance Act of 1984, which led to the National A Missing and Missing Center was established. exploited children.
But in the ’80s, being in the spotlight meant being featured on the nightly national news and making headlines. Most crimes were only reported locally and did not “spread online,” making it easy to avoid scary news if you wanted to. We live in a completely different world today, but not the way people think. We are safer in almost every way, from traffic accidents to infectious diseases to violent crime. But we feel It makes us feel less safe and has a direct impact on how we raise our children.
There was definitely magic in our blissful ignorance
There’s something to be said for not being aware of all the bad things going on in the world. The 80’s may actually have been less safe, but I didn’t know it had its benefits.
The question is, can we put the genie back in the bottle? In the age of ubiquitous screens, is it possible to give children an 80s-style childhood? Parents arrested for letting young children walk less than a mile from home By ourselves?
Society’s expectations about what children can and should do have changed dramatically, as have general levels of anxiety and fear. Parenting styles are changing to be more involved and more loving. That’s not a bad thing in itself, but it can be taken to extremes. The neglectful parenting style of the past wasn’t ideal, nor was the overprotective style the pendulum swung to.
If we can somehow find a way to give our children the joy of unstructured outdoor exploration of the 1980s and the strength of parent-child bonding today, we may be able to hit the sweet spot of raising healthy children. No. Perhaps the next generation of parents will understand that.
