Sometimes when I’m watching Ellie and Milo play in our backyard, letting them dig in the dirt and climb trees just a little too high for my comfort, I think about my own childhood in the 70s.
My mom would send me out after breakfast with a simple “be home by dinner,” and that was that. No cell phones, no GPS trackers, just pure, unsupervised freedom that would probably land her in hot water today.
The other day at the farmers’ market, I overheard two moms debating whether letting their 10-year-old walk three blocks to school alone was safe.
It got me thinking about how dramatically parenting has shifted. What was completely normal when we were kids would now have neighbors speed-dialing CPS. Yet here we are, mostly intact, reasonably functional adults who survived it all.
Let’s take a nostalgic (and slightly terrifying) walk down memory lane, shall we?
1) Kids roaming the neighborhood unsupervised all day
Remember when “go play outside” meant disappearing for hours with zero check-ins? My friends and I would bike miles from home, build forts in random woods, and create entire worlds without a single adult in sight.
The rule was simple: Be home when the street lights came on.
Today? Letting your 8-year-old play unsupervised in your own front yard can trigger concerned looks from neighbors. We’ve become so protective that free-range parenting is now considered a radical movement rather than, you know, just childhood.
I try to find balance with my own kids. Yes, they get more freedom than many of their friends, but I’d be lying if I said I don’t feel that societal pressure when Ellie wants to ride her bike around the block alone.
2) Riding in cars without car seats (or even seatbelts)
Picture this: Six kids piled in the back of a station wagon, rolling around like marbles every time dad took a turn. Or better yet, riding in the bed of a pickup truck on summer evenings, wind in your hair, not a safety restraint in sight.
My most vivid memory? Lying across the back window ledge during long road trips, using it as my personal reading nook. The thought of Milo doing that today makes my stomach drop, and rightfully so. Car seats save lives, no question about it.
But isn’t it wild how we all just… survived?
3) Babies sleeping on their stomachs
Every single baby photo from my childhood shows me face-down in my crib, surrounded by bumpers, blankets, and probably a dozen stuffed animals. This was the expert advice of the time: Babies sleep better on their tummies.
Now we know better. Back sleeping reduces SIDS risk dramatically. Safe sleep guidelines exist for good reason.
Still, I remember my mom’s confusion when she first saw Ellie sleeping on her back. “Won’t she choke if she spits up?” she asked, genuinely concerned. Different times, different knowledge.
4) Walking to school alone in elementary school
Starting in first grade, I walked almost a mile to school every single day, crossing busy streets, passing strangers, completely solo. Rain or shine, snow or sleet. It was just what kids did.
These days, schools have policies about how old kids need to be before they can walk home alone. Some districts won’t even let kids under 10 leave without a designated adult. The independence we took for granted has become almost taboo.
5) Drinking from the garden hose (and eating questionable things)
“Don’t come inside for water, drink from the hose!” How many times did you hear that? We’d also eat berries from random bushes, share lollipops with five other kids, and follow the five-second rule religiously.
Nobody talked about BPA in plastics or worried about bacteria. We built immunity the old-fashioned way, through sheer exposure to everything.
Would I let my kids share a sandwich with the neighbor’s dog today? Probably not. But did we all do basically that and live to tell the tale? Absolutely.
6) Discipline that would be considered abuse today
This one’s heavy, but we need to talk about it. Spanking with belts, wooden spoons, or switches you had to pick yourself. Standing in corners for hours. Being sent to bed without dinner. These weren’t considered abuse; they were standard discipline tactics.
Teachers could paddle students. Neighbors could scold and even punish kids who weren’t theirs. There was this whole “village” approach to discipline that included physical punishment as a given.
Today, many of these practices would result in investigations. And honestly? Good. We know so much more about child development and the lasting impacts of physical punishment. But it does make you think about how normalized it all was.
7) Leaving kids in the car while running errands
“I’ll just be a minute” meant sitting in a hot car for 20 minutes while mom grocery shopped. Windows cracked, of course, but still. We’d listen to the radio, fight with siblings, maybe honk the horn if we got really bored.
Try that today and you’ll likely return to police officers and a very heated discussion about child endangerment. Even running into the gas station to pay while kids wait in the car can earn you angry glares.
8) Zero supervision at public pools and playgrounds
Dropped off at the community pool at 9 AM, picked up at 5 PM. No parent in sight. Same with playgrounds, where the equipment was basically designed to test Darwin’s theory.
Metal slides that gave third-degree burns, merry-go-rounds that launched kids into orbit, seesaws that could knock teeth out.
Lifeguards were teens who were more interested in their tans than watching swimmers. Yet somehow, we learned to swim, to assess risk, to help each other when someone got hurt.
9) Smoking everywhere around kids
Cars, restaurants, homes, even hospitals. Everyone smoked everywhere, all the time, with zero consideration for the kids breathing it all in. Family road trips were basically hotboxes of cigarette smoke with windows barely cracked.
I remember ashtrays in McDonald’s, smoke-filled parent-teacher conferences, and doctors who’d examine you with a cigarette dangling from their lips. The fact that secondhand smoke was dangerous? Not even on anyone’s radar.
Finding our balance in modern parenting
So here’s the thing: I’m incredibly grateful for the knowledge we have now. Car seats, safe sleep practices, and understanding the impacts of secondhand smoke have saved countless lives. We absolutely should use what we’ve learned.
But sometimes I wonder if we’ve swung too far in the opposite direction. Have we traded physical safety for emotional resilience? Are we so focused on protecting our kids from every possible harm that we’re not letting them develop the skills they need to navigate the world?
I try to channel some of that 70s freedom-within-reason approach with my own kids. They climb trees (with boundaries). They play in dirt (and yes, occasionally eat it). They’re learning independence in small, age-appropriate doses.
Because while I’d never want to return to the anything-goes parenting of the 70s, there’s something to be said for kids who knew how to entertain themselves, solve their own problems, and yes, survive a childhood that wasn’t bubble-wrapped.
Maybe the real lesson isn’t that one era got it right and the other got it wrong. Maybe it’s about finding that sweet spot between keeping our kids safe and letting them actually be kids. Even if that means occasionally letting them drink from the garden hose.
