Un supervised youth

[nonovurbizniz]

So I've been talking about this with people in everyday life recently and I think it's pretty weird...

Anyone else notice that pre 90's kids were basically TOTALLY un-supervised.

From when I was 4 till adult hood growing up during the summers my parents would basically say play outside and then not worry about where I was or what I was doing till the sun went down. When I got older I did do camps everynow and again but the majority was just go outside and play be back for lunch and/or dinner.

Then theres the car seat thing too... I mean I didn't even wear a belt, much less sit in a car seat till I was big enough for the shoulder belt to be worn (12 or so)... One of my favorite games used to be either laying down on the rear deck of the hatch in my dads saab 900 or drape myself over the back seats in my mom's volvo and wait for them to stop so I could fly through the passenger compartment.

Nowdays (well besided in my neighborhood (ghetto)), people won't let their kids out of their site (unless they're in SOMEONE ELSE'S) EVER.

I don't know which is better frankly as a parent there is NO WAY I would EVER think about letting my kids play un-attended in the woods...

I mean me and this older friend of mine used to ride ATV's in the woods for HOURS with compound bows knives axes etc just doing stuff that kids don't really have the foresight to do safely... we SO almost died SO many times. But we'd figure it out on our own and get home and never tell the parents...

I guess it throws darwinism into the child rearing but I don't know if I like that.

Thoughts? Stories?