Zonie63
Posts: 2826
Joined: 4/25/2011
From: The Old Pueblo
Status: offline
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I was probably more of a "free range" kid, at least in my early years, as we lived in a small, somewhat insular community, with a lot of woods around to play in. I remember even in my pre-kindergarten days, I would play outside with minimal adult supervision - and often go quite a long ways from the house without my parents actually knowing where I was.
It got a bit dicey on one occasion when I took my tricycle down to the highway with the intention of riding 14 miles to visit my dad at work. A couple of ladies in a station wagon pulled over and asked if I wanted to go to the police station, which is where they took me. Looking back on it now, I suppose I may have placed myself at enormous risk - although I wasn't cognizant of it at the time. My mother was pissed off at me over the whole incident and how much embarrassment it caused her - and she would still recount the story years later at nearly every family gathering.
My parents got divorced when I was 7 - and a few years of moving back and forth to different settings - some of which were in the rougher parts of large urban areas - I probably got a bit more "street-wise." I was always a "latch-key kid" in a single-parent household, with minimal adult supervision. But I also had a keen sense of direction, knew how to read signs, note landmarks - so I was never actually "lost." I always knew where I was and how to get home - no matter how far I ventured.
Most of the kids would walk to school if they lived close enough, or else they would take the school bus if it was too far to walk. It was a rare occurrence to see parents picking up or dropping off their kids to school. Nowadays, every school has a mini traffic jam at the time of arrival and dismissal.
I suppose another difference is that we didn't have as many at-home "diversions" that later came into being due to advancements in video gaming technology. And, as much as I've come to enjoy the convenience of having a cellphone, I'm certainly glad that technology was not widely available when I was a teenager. We didn't even have caller ID back then.
I don't know if the world was any "safer" back then - although there was a surge in crime in the 70s and 80s which led to greater public attention and awareness of crime. At some point (and I don't recall exactly when), pictures of missing children started showing up on milk cartons with the heading "Have you seen me?" There were a few local cases where they had billboards up trying to find a young child, with notices and fliers all over town. Some cases have also garnered national attention, as well as establishing the Amber Alert system, giving greater public awareness to the dangers that lurk out there. The overall public attitude has changed, so I can see why some would favor being helicopter parents over allowing free range kids.
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RE: free range kids vs helicopter parents - 
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Nothing to do with the world outside being felt to be more dangerous to one's kids as a result of increase in traffic on the roads, crimes and the paranoid reporting of both by sensationalising journalists - all in the tones of general menace 'out there in the world' that you see in the media all the time.
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