[fergonco]

Just a data point: In Valencia, Spain, in the 80s, children played in the street with no much supervision from parents. Occasionally we would stop the football match to let a car drive by. Forgetting your keys at home was no issue, you could get a glass of milk in ten different places while you wait for other (more attentive) members of your family.

Nowadays there is hardly a place to park your car. Parents don't allow kids to play in the street. And the ones that interact with each other are the ones who lived there in that period. It's very difficult for newcomers to integrate.

What are the reasons for this? My take: cars and lack of stay at home mums. They built the social network at that time. They took care of each other children, the were there to help each other. Nowadays households have both adults working (so nobody even asks for salt to the neighbor, all order a pizza instead).

[gmoot]

We tried to counteract this with our own children by giving them a lot of freedom.

But these things are very network dependent. Yes we let our kids play in the street and bike around the neighborhood, but it is boring because there are not any other kids to play with, so they don't do it much.

[aantix]

There's now an intolerance to letting kids play freely.

And if you do let your kids play freely, and something happens - they get hurt, they break something, they're being loud, there's the attitude from others of "why aren't you watching your f*ing kid?".

[enraged_camel]

>> There's now an intolerance to letting kids play freely.

Worth noting that streets are a lot more dangerous now due to the large number of huge trucks that everyone drives. If your kid gets hit by one of them while playing, chances are they won't survive. Hell, the driver may not even notice.

[globular-toast]

I think you're on to something. Everyone always talks about social media but I honestly think cars are the most harmful technology of our time. Not least because it's not even recognised by the vast majority of people yet. Social media is at least given lip service.

Everyone working all the time sucks for many reasons. It's a trap that people have fallen for and the only ones laughing are the billionaire oligarchs. Women in particular used to work for themselves and their families, building their own assets and their own relationships. Almost like that "founder" status everyone wants. Now they work for the same few men as their partners building wealth for those men and the closest the family has to a home cooked meal is a favourite takeaway.

[trealira]

> Women in particular used to work for themselves and their families, building their own assets and their own relationships. Almost like that "founder" status everyone wants. Now they work for the same few men as their partners building wealth for those men and the closest the family has to a home cooked meal is a favourite takeaway.

I'd caution you not to conflate home-cooked meals and family dinners with restrictive gender roles. It's possible to have them without a stay-at-home wife. For example, I grew up with two moms working full-time and had home-cooked meals (or leftovers thereof) for dinner almost every day. It's of course harder to make time to cook when both parents are working, but not impossible.

[lotsofpulp]

> Women in particular used to work for themselves

Women only recently got the right to manage their own assets, and in some societies it is still in the process of happening.

>and their families,

Yes, they used to work for their families.

[leobg]

I think that was beautifully phrased. Needless to say, I agree.

[Moldoteck]

Interesting, usually cars are characterized as anti social elements. These are loud, take lots of space, so lower density, polluting and require license and you can't drink alcohol. Bikes on the other hand are considered more friendly as human centric element

[bitcoinmoney]

Same in Philippines in the 90s. We’d be out all day and come back at dinner time. There was no pedo. I think kidnapping and pedophile are overblown in media. Whole neighborhood would just play on the streets. No nanny.

[lotsofpulp]

It is also true that sexual harassment and abuse was not openly discussed, especially by girls/women and still isn’t (at least in real time).

[cen4]

We have 8 billion people on the planet. And there is no plan what so ever to take care of even half of them. It doesn't matter if we see slowing population growth. With globalization there is no reason to be sitting in the same spot. People are on the move.