My parents used to kick me out of the house and lock the door. They wouldn't let me back inside until after sundown. I'd usually go hang out with my cousins or whoever the most recent neighbor was. I grew up in a kinda rural area with nothing but forests and swamps, so most of our days involved inventing elaborate games with one another. Like tag or hide and seek, or some very complex variation of baseball. Or maybe someone smuggled something out of the house like a Gameboy Camera, or some comics, or a cassette recorder or something and we'd spend time with that.

Also we were like 10 years old during this. Yeah. I have no idea what kids are like now or what they do. We didn't even have phones, not even 90s brick phones. Also this area had bears, occasional bobcats, cougars, and scary methheads out in the woods. The Klan was around too. And yet our parents were just like "get the fuck out of the house, go play"

i fucking hate sounding like a boomer by the way, I don't wanna sound all wistful and nostalgic. That's just the stuff I experienced

you were allowed outside without adult supervision before you were 16?

When I was in middle school and beyond - all the time.

I was a lazy kid and would ask my parents for a ride to my friend's house across town and their response was always along the lines of "you have legs don't you? Walk or ride your bike!". I always walked to school across town in the other direction unless it was raining hard or really cold (colder than -20°C). I was allowed to roam wherever I wanted so long as I told them I was going out. I can't imagine growing up with the kind of helicopter parents some people have. I had one acquaintance who had parents like that, the kid that insisted on driving them around for Halloween, and I always thought that was bizarre behavior.

My parents had the attitude that if a hundred years ago kids could work full days in factories then we could easily handle the responsibility of a little freedom and I'm thankful everyday for that

Yeah, by myself or with friends. We would play street hockey, ride bikes, climb trees, go to the school playground. In high school we would go on long walks in our suburban hellscape, sometimes several miles to get to 7-11. Where I lived is not at all pedestrian friendly and I bet parents today would be terrified of their kids crossing the major roads we did. Also, when the first Rock Band came out my friend got it at midnight and because we'd wake his grandparents up if we played it at his house we walked to the school football field and set it up in the announcer box. I had noticed it wasn't locked a while ago and there was an outlet so

We stayed up there for at least 3 or 4 hours jammin out despite it being pretty cold, as I remember.

By 2nd grade me and my neighborhood friends were out riding bikes, building forts in the woods, or catching crawdads in the creek without any adults in sight.

At about 8-10 years old, the rule was be home before the sun goes down.

There were no mobiles, so if we were missing they would call around the neighbors houses saying “have you seen 420?”

At least 3 times there were search parties because we were out too late, which was followed by socially accepted physical child abuse for breaking the rules.

The 90s.

My friends and I went out into the forest all the time on our own when we were younger. We were only allowed to go out after 10PM once we were 12.

I was babysitting my little siblings when I was 9. Took a class and everything. Spent my free time riding bikes around the neighborhood or climbing through the woods. Had my first cigarette at 9, when I was 10 I found a pizza place a couple miles away from my home that sold cigarettes out of their regular candy vending machine. Buy your cigarettes and then a pack of m&m's and take both out at the same time with the m&m's hiding your smokes.👍

Obviously.

Kids went to school by bike alone since 10 yo or sooner. Then you were outside running around the whole town unsupervised cuz you had a bike you could go anywhere.

Oh and we were free to spend unholy quantities of time in cybercafés. The worst place for a kid to be, I would rather have my kid playing at the bog alone

And like, my brothers and I were working riding tractors. And not mock "OK kid 'help' me with this". It was things like, "comb this field, I'll return in an hour or two"

With a thibg like this

Not really, no, but I had a tiger mom and a back yard.