SAD Freaking Article From The Guardian About Kids, The Outdoors And Today's Fear Of Everything
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Bond calculated another staggering fact. His mother, Helen, who is 81 and lives with the family in London, grew up in Hornsea, Yorkshire, and at the age of 11 roamed across 50 square miles. When he was a boy, in the 1970s, he roamed within 1 square mile. His children wander freely only as far as their 140-square-metre garden permits and he admits that they are fortunate to have such a large garden in the capital. "We're so lucky compared with most Londoners," he says. "I own a tree."
It is difficult to decipher the precise constellation of social and economic changes that have made us afraid of nature, and curtailed a childhood outdoors. They are, however, visible through the lives of three generations of the Bond family. Helen was the eldest of three children growing up on the edge of Hornsea. Her mother was a full-time housewife but the children were left to play on their own – in the garden, the surrounding countryside, the nearby golf course and beach. They were outside as much as possible in all weathers, she remembers. "It was just a fun place to explore because parts of it were a bit wild."
It wasn't idyllic: the sea (where they swam unsupervised by adults) was brown, there was barbed wire and old pillboxes from the second world war on the eroding cliffs, and once, when she cycled the mile and a half to catch the school bus, a man exposed himself to Helen and her friend. Her friend told her mother, who said, "We all know they've got these things," and that was about it. Bond contrasts this memory with modern overreactions: Ivy's primary school recently circulated an email about reports of a white van seen outside school gates in the area and for three weeks the school run became a scrum until parents forgot about it.
Bond grew up in Canterbury in the 1970s. He did not roam nearly as far as his mother, but he played outdoors in the street with friends. Their favourite stomping ground was the local hospital. "We used to crawl through air-conditioning ducts and follow the pipes. It was an amazing adventure playground. We'd play dare, and see how far we could walk through the corridors before we were stopped," he says. There was no secure fencing or security guards. For his film, Bond returned to Canterbury and talked to some children he found playing in his old street. "They were very gloomy about their level of freedom, talking about how the neighbours complain if they make a noise or play ball games," he says.
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2013/jul/13/no-freedom-play-outside-children
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