Are we limiting this to physical safety causing injury/death?
If not, how about the increase in youth anxiety/depression, possibly related to screens/social media? Maybe add in a nod to childhood obesity.
Indeed. My mother-in-law rear-ended a stopped car, while traveling at something like 35 mph, back in November. She got those bruises (which left her very sore for weeks), and cuts on her face (from where the airbag had gone off, and slammed her eyeglasses into her face), but without the seatbelt (and the airbags), she might well have been left permanently disabled, if not dead.
Wow, I didn’t realize my comment in the other thread would actually spawn this one. I’ve been traveling today. Anyway…
I guess I was comparing more the current widespread hover-parenting where kids are not allowed to ride their bike to school even with a helmet, or to walk with their friends over to the park to toss around a football, or attend a sleepover party, etc. Yes, I think improved safety standared have definitely made kids’ lives safer, but I guess I was speculating more about if chopper-parenting is making kid’s lives safer and less risky at the expense of experiencing freedom, independence, learning from the school of hard knocks, etc.
I, too was born in the late 60s, rode in the middle of the back seat leaning on the front seat between my parents, rode a bike without a bicycle helmet, walked to school with my brother, walked home from a friends house at night, etc. I agree survivor bias is in play WRT statistics.
Vehicles are safer, though I am not sure how much of the reduction in children’s bike accidents are due to it being safer or kids just cycling less.
On the converse side in the 70s when kids “rode bikes without wearing helmets, we got pellet rifles, we played with lawn darts, walked to school, roamed the neighborhood till we had to be home for dinner and so on” (in the words of the OP), they were much more active, Diet was much more natural and healthy etc. That and other factors have adversely affect health and it must be less “safe” to be unhealthy.
Diet was much more natural and healthy etc. In the early 70s 1% of children were severely obese in 2017/18 (most up to date figure I have) it was over 6%.
This bit, I don’t think was necessarily true.
The U.S. diet became full of highly-processed foods in the postwar era, over the course of the 1950s through the 1970s. Kids in the 1970s were eating Wonder Bread, breakfast cereals that were 50% sugar, sugary peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, hot dogs, TV dinners, etc. (I know; I was there, and that’s what I ate, thanks to a very permissive mother who didn’t enjoy cooking.)
In that era, “health food” was the province of hippies and the crunchy-granola fringe; it wasn’t how most Americans (and certainly most American kids) ate.
Yes, kids are more likely to be overweight now, but that is probably more a function of portion sizes being much larger, and inactivity, than that their “diet was much more natural and healthy etc.”
That was just an example. But it is almost never a stranger, it is someone the parents and kid trusts. Teachers, coaches, relatives, etc.
Does that number include car vs pedestrian accidents?
Helicopter parenting is one of those “known” things now, but I have anecdotes to refute it!
Today was 70F and sunny in mid March. People were out enjoying it. While I was out I saw parents with small children in the park. These were very young kids that probably no where and no when would be out without parents or at least an older child.
With no obvious supervising adults nearby I saw: school aged kids playing tennis and basketball in the park, some out biking alone, others walking in groups, and a group of kids skating in the street. An 11 year old biked to my house all by herself, and I’m guessing biked home, too.
My point is, I can’t really tell the difference between what I saw today on a one mile walk in suburbia, and what I remember doing in the 80s. Sure, the skaters and bicyclists had helmets, but they were still out doing kid things, without adult supervision, and it didn’t seem unusual.
Thanks for educating me. I was a kid in the 70s but in the UK. Mothers in full time work was unusual then and home cooking rather than TV dinners was the norm. Our diet was “healthy food” rather than “health food”. Fresh meat / fish and vegetables rather than ultra-processed food with lots of added sugar and salt which is the norm today.
My neighbours 15 year old son has recently started to cycle the 6 miles to school. (Mainly just so he can hang out with his girlfriend after school without his mother or me picking him up.)
I was impressed that he was bucking the trend and living like I did in the 70’s. But then he fell off his bike at the skate park last week and ended up with 10 stitches in his head. No helmet at the skate park as it’s ‘not cool’. But a couple of his friends walked with him to the hospital, and another one took his bike somewhere safe. They also filmed his accident on their phones of course.
A little too much of the 70’s there. He needs to find a happy medium. And wear a helmet even if it doesn’t look cool!
At least in the U.S., might this also be a byproduct of the current state of health insurance? I can imagine a parent keeping their child away from even potential dangers if that parent really, really, doesn’t want to dip into their savings for another ER bill.
1976 for me, but in a way different country. Rhodesia still had an insurgency, my parents travelled with an FN FAL and an Uzi in convoys. So though young, I was exposed to risk. Not too safe!
We never got fired on, though. Once the war was over…
Ww lived outside a small town. My brother and I (aged around 7 and 5) were free to wander. We walked to school with our sister, alone. At one point we covered more than 12km to arrive at a local farm, though bush. Fortunately the owners knew our parents so we did not need to walk back… we did get a bit of a lecture on thd way home.
My own kids live in a seaside villiage. Mountains behind, great surfing in front. I hope they surf and climb (responsibly) because freedom as a kid is amazing.
As for “safety” that is not specific. Safety from being children? I have medical insurance. Safety from poor decisions? They will learn.
Safety from weidos/sexual predators? I taught them “stranger danger” from a young age. Also you need to consider the likelihood of encountering a sexual predator. It is small in highly trafficked areas, such as malls. But two kids climbing up a not very well used path on a small mountain? Really unlikely. I mean, I’ve hiked those trails and never in more than 5 years even met another person.
When the kids are old enough to get cellphones they will be even more safe, but right now I am OK with them doing what I did when I was a boy. Obviously I prefer no solo hikes, especally as we have a number of venemous snakes, but two or more… go for it!
Your kids are lucky to have that sort of environment to grow up in!
Zimbabwe was, and is, still safe. I mean, very very stoned long haired teenage* white friends and I drove a VW beetle smelling of dope into the notorious Presidential Guard barracks, getting nothing more than a salute at the front gate and courteous service at the Officer’s Mess. It is kind of a charming country in many ways if you can ignore the economy and leadership
- if you are willing to accept a certain value of stoned teenagers as “kids”
We also, male and female, underaged, hitchhiked home drunk after parties. I’d be upset with my kids in this day and age where cellphones are ubiquitous, über, etc are better alternatives, but fuck. YOLO.
(Just try call your parent first. I’d prefer to be the driver. I’d prefer the ride of - silent - shame, I’m not going to tell them off for doing the sensible thing. That fits in with hangover breakfast)
When Heelys had their first go-around, I worked with a woman whose tween son wanted a pair, and I asked her, “Does he have a college fund?” When she said he did, I replied, “Then be prepared to empty it $150 at a time,” $150 being our insurance’s copay for ER visits.
He didn’t get the Heelys.
I have a relative who almost died as a teenager in the late 1990s because he didn’t want to wear a bike helmet. Had he worn a helmet, he might have had a little bump on his head or a small cut on his chin that probably wouldn’t have warranted medical attention. He’s still dealing with post-concussion syndrome from this.
Since you mentioned it, a good friend of my son, a football player being recruited at a few colleges and all around life-of-the-party kid, fell off his longboard, without a helmet, and ended up with brain damage. No college, no parties, different future for he and his family. I guess some of the activities kids have available to them these days can increase the dangers - I don’t know when the longboard was invented, and I had a skateboard when I was a kid and went helmetless, too, but I guess the speed of his fall made the difference (longboards are typically used on hills?).
As mentioned, gun violence is a factor in child morbidity these days. I am sure guns were a factor back in the day for us as well, but perhaps less so. In some examples it may be more dangerous to be a kid today than back then.
When I was around 10 or 12, I had a pogo stick, and got pretty good at staying upright for a while. My neighbor wanted to give it a try, and promptly fell forward and broke her arm, right in front of me. I wont forget her writhing in pain on the concrete sidewalk.
As an adult I fell off my e-board and it was shocking how fast my head hit the ground. I had ZERO chance to protect my head in any way. It all happened in an instant. And, it was a solid whack to the head too. Fortunately, I had a helmet on and, without a doubt, it saved me from a serious injury. Indeed, I was completely fine except for a scraped arm/elbow (which kinda sucked but was not a big deal).
ETA: And yes, I replaced the helmet after that accident since they cannot be trusted to work after the first accident.
I’m glad you had a helmet on too!
Head injuries are no joke and can be insidious and forever. I know, I have a TBI from a MVA, changed my life in an instant, never to get all back.
Kudos too for replacing the helmet, you get extra points for that. Keep preaching it friend!
You are welcome!
Working moms were part of the reason why, in the U.S. in the 1970s, though I think that the percentage of moms who worked outside the home at that time was still not nearly as pronounced as it was in the '80s and later.
What was probably a bigger factor was the introduction of many convenience foods and pre-packaged foods in the U.S., starting in the '50s, and relentless marketing campaigns about how such foods made life easier for women (who were the default family meal preparers), and how their kids and husbands would love the taste.
Such foods were often lacking in nutritional value, and/or loaded with sugar and empty calories – for example, packaged breakfast cereals had been around for decades, but it wasn’t until the 1950s and 1960s when those cereals started being advertised using cartoon characters, and became formulated with high amounts of sugar.
My sister used to manage a flower shop. They did a lot of funerals. I remember her telling me about the one funeral where the family was pissed at the deceased - a youngish husband and father, who died of a head injury while biking without a helmet.
And we had a friend in law school who felt he didn’t need to wear a helmet on his motorcycle. Guy was on Dean’s List. Incredibly smart and funny. We saw him a few years later, and he was little more than a shuffling vegetable.