What do you consider normal growing up?

[reecejackox]

I would say
Walking home
Going to the park

 

[mjkacmom]

Cocktail hour before dinner, my mom would put out snacks and my parents would drink their cocktails and watch the news before dinner. Even if my dad got home late from work we had to wait to eat dinner.

 

[tvguy]

Smoking.

 

[E&Cmom]

Packing into a car with several kids one on top of another with no seat belts. Oh and riding in the back of pick up trucks. I remember this still being done in University.

 

[Meriweather]

walking to and from school
staying home alone
playing outside after dark
riding bikes in the street
no seat belts

 

[nw6675]

Most of the above (minus the cocktail hour lol)

Leaving home on my bike after breakfast in the summer and pretty much not coming home until dark. Drinking out of the hose, raiding someone's fridge for popsicles, buying cigarettes at the quickemart ("they are for my mom...").

General Hospital on (some of my first memories) and watched faithfully until I was an adult. Ironically, watched it today 30 years later and STILL knew everyone!!

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Dogs and cats running around the neighborhood.

 

[hhisc16]

living in the same town as the majority of my family...

 

[chickapin parterre]

1960s californina tavens....sitting by the pool table with my hires rootbeer watching my dad at the wood bar

walking home every day afte school thru a cresote tree forest larrea tridentata , for a mile in the hot desert sun, come to find out as an adult....oldest living organism on earth.

no such concept as private land or visiting a national park for free

never enough E tickets in the book and A tickets were just not Timex worthy

 

[RogueX]

A loud popping sound nearby was never fireworks but rather gunfire.

Walking to and from school had a predetermined route according to my grandfather and because he worked for the city, he had eyes everywhere. It was for our protection, the elementary school we went to was in a dangerous part of the city.

 

[PollyannaMom]

Walking home from school, playing outside, riding our bikes for miles.

 

[loves to dive]

Same as others: walking to school, playing outside as long as we could long into dark (until we heard Daddy's whistle to come home), riding bikes without helmets, no seat belts (I also either had to sit on the hump or actually ride on the little shelf in the window), everyone eating supper at the table at the same time and eating the same thing. We were also big on Sunday rides, everyone piling in the car (6 kids) and just riding with nowhere in mind and usually stopping and having a picnic.

 

[superme80]

A loud popping sound nearby was never fireworks but rather gunfire.

Walking to and from school had a predetermined route according to my grandfather and because he worked for the city, he had eyes everywhere. It was for our protection, the elementary school we went to was in a dangerous part of the city.

Same. Fell asleep to the sound of police helicopter searching for felons most nights.

 

[Alicefan]

Same as others: walking to school, playing outside as long as we could long into dark (until we heard Daddy's whistle to come home), riding bikes without helmets, no seat belts (I also either had to sit on the hump or actually ride on the little shelf in the window), everyone eating supper at the table at the same time and eating the same thing. We were also big on Sunday rides, everyone piling in the car (6 kids) and just riding with nowhere in mind and usually stopping and having a picnic.

yes yes yes to all of this! The hump was my seat! I sat with my head sticking between the seats and occasionally my dad would yell, "Lean back!" lol Sometimes I rode in my mom's lap, sitting on the door handle with my upper body out the window, hanging on to the ridge of the car door by my fingertips. Jesus our parents were risky sons of biscuits! I always sat on the arm rest of my grandparents LTD, in between them. That was my seat. I also learned to drive by sitting in my Grandpa's lap and him letting me steer by myself from about 5 years old. I'm lucky to be alive! lol

 

[Alicefan]

You know, I can't even fathom having children in this day and age. Do you know how hard it would be to never be able to take your eyes off of them? There is no more letting your children walk over to a friends house to play. No more letting your kids play on their own swing set in the back yard. You may have this luxury if you live out in rural areas, but I know my niece doesn't go out alone. Not ever.

 

[PollyannaMom]

You know, I can't even fathom having children in this day and age. Do you know how hard it would be to never be able to take your eyes off of them? There is no more letting your children walk over to a friends house to play. No more letting your kids play on their own swing set in the back yard. You may have this luxury if you live out in rural areas, but I know my niece doesn't go out alone. Not ever.

I agree. Our neighborhood still had some of that when DS was little (I told him all the time he lived in a time warp) but I really do think you're describing a lot of the stress of parenting (and of growing up) today. Parents are in "alert" mode all the time, and kids don't get to gradually ease into independence like they used to.

 

[Alicefan]

I agree. Our neighborhood still had some of that when DS was little (I told him all the time he lived in a time warp) but I really do think you're describing a lot of the stress of parenting (and of growing up) today. Parents are in "alert" mode all the time, and kids don't get to gradually ease into independence like they used to.

You know, you're so right. My sister suffers from anxiety and depression and refuses to have another child. She says she worries so much about parenting and feeling like she's doing it wrong etc that she says it took the joy out of having children for her. She's a teacher and she sees all of the issues that come up and over time it has all just gotten to her. She finally had to get out of the classroom and take a different job. She's one of those people that hears a bad story and she can't shake it for days on end and she absorbs it as if it happened to her. That's a rough way to live in this horrible day and age.

 

[cedricandsophie]

Everything others have said plus for me
Comic books (I stole one from the candy store once, my dad found it and made me take it back and apologize)
paper dolls with clothes thst I cut out from McCalls magazine
playing in the streets when they flooded after a big rain
bats circling the street lights as we played hide and seek or kick the can
my little dog Pepper walking from house to house every day to say hello and get treats
laying in bed under the covers as my dad would spank me with the belt because I had done something bad. He didn’t really put his heart into it and under the covers it didn’t hurt that much. I was a willful child.
Staying overnight with my grandma in her walkup one room studio, sleeping together and playing bunco
My other grandma lived down the street from us; she couldn’t speak English (she was Lithuanian ) and wore babuskas and long dresses. She was scary. But she had a magnificent willow tree in her front yard that was a great place to hide under for hide and seek
Walking to grade school from first grade on past all the taverns in our small town filled with customers at 8 am who has just gotten off third shift
Being excited to visit the local 5 and 10 after I got my allowance to go t9 the soda fountain and
briskly walking to our small local library on a Saturday morning so I could take out the next Nancy Drew, Bobbsey twins or Cherry Ames book. (as a birthday present a few years ago, my husband bought me a complete set of Cherry Ames (nurse who solved mysteries) books…I started to read them again but they had somehow lost their appeal! But I loved that he did that).
Playing cowboys and Indians in someones back yard
Pulling out wild rhubarb from our yard, barely cleaning it off under the hose and eating it raw

 

[mjkacmom]

You know, I can't even fathom having children in this day and age. Do you know how hard it would be to never be able to take your eyes off of them? There is no more letting your children walk over to a friends house to play. No more letting your kids play on their own swing set in the back yard. You may have this luxury if you live out in rural areas, but I know my niece doesn't go out alone. Not ever.

That’s sad. We live 10 miles west of NYC, so definitely not the boonies, my kids started walking to school in second grade, had the run of the town by 10 (walking and biking). It’s safer now than when I was a kid, 24/7 news skews our perception of danger. Unfortunately this is harmful, kids are not learning to trust their instincts, and develop situational awareness, important skills.

 

[chickapin parterre]

being told behind every cactus is a rattlesnake ready to strike at you as you hike by...nothing changes....editorial and radio spiel in YUma today....about rattle snakes behind every cactus.