[m348e912]

You and the parent are touching on the key difference. The neighborhood was a community who knew each other and looked out for each other. In the US this dichotomy is exceptionally rare, so a young child walking alone is truly among strangers. I am not saying that kids shouldn't have freedom to roam but it's different.

America lacks community in many places. I don't know if it's uniquely American, but it's very common. Neighbors don't know neighbors, the shop owner doesn't know who kid's parents are. This is in my opinion is the primary reason why kids aren't allowed out alone.

[friendzis]

> This is in my opinion is the primary reason why kids aren't allowed out alone.

I guess this is polar opposite: the situation is like this because kids are not allowed outside. Since kids are not allowed outside, you build "suburban sprawls": rows of houses with literally nowhere for those kids to go even if they wanted. And then you transport them directly to school and sports with a personal car. So the kids do not have interaction with other kids, because they are neither allowed to nor there is a field to play in. Naturally the other parents don't know the kids further than immediate neighbors.

The twist is that now the infrastructure is suddenly lone-kid-hostile.

[denton-scratch]

> the situation is like this because kids are not allowed outside.

Imagine if the street-scene was crowded with kids. They would witness vandalism and bad behaviour, and wrongdoers would be much more cautious. I wish kids would play outside on the estate where I live.

[midoridensha]

>This is in my opinion is the primary reason why kids aren't allowed out alone.

All other developed nations have big, urban areas where people don't know all their neighbors, yet they don't have this weird problem America has. I live in Tokyo, the most populated metro area on the planet, and I see little kids riding around on their bikes, by themselves, at night. Little kids riding the subways to places far from home, by themselves, is perfectly normal. I've also seen kids walking by themselves in Europe.

This is uniquely an American problem. IMO, Americans are simply paranoid.

[locofocos]

How do we find places that still value and foster this kind of community?

And how do we contribute to it ourselves? Lately I've been wanting to be intentional about getting involved, getting to know people, etc. I came across this blog post on the topic from HN a few months ago: https://www.seanblanda.com/its-time-for-localism-in-america/

[m348e912]

It's just my own theory but perhaps there is some relationship between loss community and a few things:

* A two parent working household meant that there were less stay-at-home moms around to network in the community and build familiarity with other moms and neighboring families.

* The use of cars meant that there was less opportunity for interaction while walking in the neighborhood.

* Local church where people built a community through faith.

[bundze]

I grew up in the former Eastern bloc (Poland) in a small town and we had this sort of free-range parenting there. When I was around 9 or 10 I would spend my whole days playing outside with the other kids from the neighborhood, especially in the summer. Sort of like the "Bullerbyn children" in Astrid Lindgren's book. Sometimes one of us was sent on an errand (like to a local shop) and others went along to keep company. There were 5 of us hanging out regularly and most of us lived in two working parent households except one who had a SAH mother and another who was raised by a working single mother. So I don't think the lack of SAH moms is a factor here. Also, my parents are not religious and there definitely was no faith-based community. My parents actually didn't know that well the parents of other kids, we kids just met each other somehow in the area or were introduced by other kids that we knew. I think it was rather a combination of living in a safe neighborhood - suburb with low traffic (even now Poland has less cars per capita than US https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_vehicle...) and people being just less paranoid back then. Also, the societal expectations towards children have shifted in the recent years, now people often try to micromanage their children's time and provide them with too many after-school activities so kids don't have time to just hang around.

[m348e912]

Interesting, thanks for the insight. You're right, you never see kids just hanging out anymore. Like you said, it's more organized and micromanaged.

[whitemary]

>America lacks community in many places.

Arguably the most painful aspect of survival in our late-stage capitalist society.