When I was a kid, I ran around unattended all the time. On any given day, after school and on the weekends, I could be at a creek, a friend's house, the mall, a movie theater, a construction site, or even home in my room. And my parents had no idea. I remember being 10, running around on the construction equipment from the housing development three neighborhoods over at 9 or 10 p.m. My parents were cool with it.
My parents weren't great, and (big surprise) parenting never seemed difficult for them. They had a lot of help from their parents and treated my sister and me like they were raising us to turn 18 and move out. I want to raise healthy, happy adults, but I never had a model for how to do that. I've had to learn as I go and it has taken a lot of work to take my parents' bad parenting out of my repertoire so my kids won't have to deal with it.
Beyond that, I live in a different state and my sister didn't have children. I grew up with a large extended family and spent weekends and holidays with grandparents and cousins. My kids don't have any of that which can feel isolating and not at all what I pictured as the ideal family life when I was young.
There's so much more to consider when it comes to protecting your kid's privacy and keeping them safe. I was about 11 or 12 when the internet became more widely available for email and YouTube. There are so many social media platforms now, and so many ways that potential predators can lure and harm children online. I have no idea how to address some of these issues, and as things like AI evolve, there will be even more internet safety concerns to talk with my kids.
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