How old are you? And what sort of neighborhood did you grow up in? Had that particular neighborhood been constructed recently, or had it been around for decades?
Same last two questions about where you’re living now.
I was born in 1954, smack in the middle of the Baby Boom. Practically all the suburbs were new, and people who bought those houses were mostly people with young children, or planning to have them. So practically all the suburbs back then were filled with children. There were eleven houses on the street I grew up on, and only two or three of them didn’t have kids.
Nearly sixty years later, things are a bit different.There’s about the same number of school-age kids, but there are a hell of a lot more suburbs. So the density of kids, if you will, is much lower. They’re more spread out; it’s quite simply harder for them to find each other outside school.
The main exception to this is in new neighborhoods that are affordably priced for young families. Kids tend to be clustered there.
My neighborhood is about 25 years old. When my wife and I moved in, 19 years ago, it was wall-to-wall kids. But the neighborhood has aged in place. All those kids who were trick-or-treating at our door the first Halloween we were here, they’re all grown up. And most of those kids’ parents are still here, so there aren’t many kids around. The ones there are, live further apart from one another: same size neighborhood, fewer kids, hence more dispersed. Fewer opportunities for kids to get together without play dates. (And that’s a good part of the reason why play dates are a thing, fwiw.)
So this is why most people would see fewer kids playing outside than they used to.
Probably decades. Heck I rarely see kids playing outside period. I go for walks around town fairly often and one time saw two kids playing catch with a football in the street and I was shocked. That was something my friends and I did literally every day but I hadn’t seen it in years.
I taught 2 of my grandkids (4 & 5 at the time) to play hopscotch last year. They loved it and couldn’t get enough of it. Other than that, I haven’t seen anyone play it in years. I also showed them how to play some of the other games we played as kids - Red Light, Green Light, Captain May I, SPUD, etc. They loved playing them too. I’m not sure if they’ve ever jump roped tho. Maybe that will be our next lesson!
Anyone remember playing with Chinese jump ropes? I suppose that’s an inappropriate name now, but that’s what they were called. Every girl in the school had one of them.
Hell, even growing up in the 80s, I don’t think I ever saw anyone play hopscotch. No clue how to play it. And I only learned of four square a few months ago, as I asked my wife what the hell that particular marking was at the playground. Playgrounds around here almost seem to be required to have hopscotch and four square painted on them, as I guess that is some designer’s idea of the Ur-playground, but I’ve never seen a single kid play it. (The kids play many different other games, typically soccer. Many tennis and basketball courts in my neighborhood have been converted for soccer play.And back then we played baseball, 16-inch softball, and basketball typically.)
Jump rope, though, I do remember from my youth. Haven’t noticed it in years, though.
Now that I do actually see now and then. We have a couple odd industrial buildings and kids snag the hoops or lids from the big plastic drums and play with them and invent some elaborate games now and then.
You’re supposed to watch for kids anytime you drive through a residential area. They are known to carelessly dart out into the streets. The classic Drivers Ed video tests the students reaction when a kid runs into the street chasing a ball.
I don’t stare or obviously watch them. I’m well aware of today’s rampant paranoia.
I see hopscotch thingies around all the time in the summer. I rarely catch them hoping though. I think I saw a few kids skipping rope one or two time this year. I don’t really pay much attention. It’s none of my business what they’re up to with their ropes.
I more frequently see kids going into the street chasing a ball. I guess they never took drivers ed.
Of course we all remember playing this, as well as all the other hopscotch- and jump-rope-related games people have mentioned. Since these are social games, maybe those posters who have pointed out that one needs to go to a park or playground or other place with a sufficient concentration of kids to see them played are on to something.
You guys didn’t have the drivers Ed simulator with the reaction video?
We had 6 simulator stations in a room with a large screen on the wall. A video played and you had to swerve around obstacles, brake suddenly and other stuff. You got graded on your reactions.
