I grew up in Flordia, running the woods and creeks full of gators till the sun went down. I lived there till 3rd grade. In Maryland, we ran and played in the woods. Same thing in Virginia and later in Texas. I spent most of my young life alone in the woods, miles away from civilization, pretending I was the last human on earth, teaching myself survival skills like. By todays standards, my parents were a abusers. That time spent being independent created who I am today, which is likely why I am Conservative and fiercely independent.
Parents today hover like crazy thanks to 24 hour cycle of rape and murder news, convincing parents the world is going to kill their children the second they turn the backs.
Your childhood sounds like the perfect dream to me. I LOVE feeling that I’m the only human on earth:)
When I climbed out of a 747 at dawn in Fiji, it felt like the first morning of the world. Was up at dawn every day there to watch the sunrise, gorgeous, dewy, so fragrant that you feel blessed just to breathe. Heavenly.
You got survival skills, I got poetry. It’s exactly who we were meant to be.
Pity those poor kids today who are never allowed a minute to themselves to figure out what their hearts need.
I am convinced that the above, along with other “hassle the parents laws” are all forms of population control. The government is trying hard to make it expensive and a hassle to have kids to deter the masses from having too many.
I grew up in NYC, where we didn’t have gators but did have a lot of dangerous things (mostly human), and when I was 9 or 10, I was outside for hours at a time, either in the parks, riding my bike off to other parks, or simply hanging out some place. No cell phone, no nothing; I just had to check in by mealtime. All the kids I knew had the same “neglect.”