AMEN. (Also: I'm from The Netherlands, our summer break is 6 weeks and I'm already dreading it. We don't (really...) have camps, so that's a big difference I think, but 12 weeks??? How??!)
This article has really struck a cord with me. It’s a summary of so much of what has changed about and shapes our society - women in the work force, housing affordability, daycare, smaller families - but could be construed flippantly. Is it possible that you are living the dream? Or at the very least what feminists thought would be the dream “back in the day”? Women wanted to be like men and work - now they’re working. Us out there being boss ladies has driven up the GDP which has made everything more expensive and ensured that we have to stay out there being boss ladies. Now we’re working our asses off to pay other people to take care of our kids. And on and on it goes. We of course don’t want to go “back in the day” and erase all the advances women have made but it does seem we’ve lost some things along the way.
Uhm. As a mother of 4 mostly school age children in the 90’s. I did not get to sleep in and didn’t have time to read magazines. I had to quit reading the article at that very beginning point.
I think the larger point of the article is that both my memory of being a child is likely not accurate - that is, people are nostalgic for something that *didn't exist* in the first place because they loved being kids and were fundamentally unconcerned with what their parents were doing. Also, even if it was reality for some families, the idea that the kind of summer I am describing is desirable is ultimately absurd and unhelpful in 2025. Maybe consider continuing to read the rest!
Thank you for pointing out the obvious, which is the world is not safe for our kids, and there are no kids left outside to play with because everyone has to work outside the home.
If society is not going to provide any protection for our kids, why are parents shamed for not letting their kids run around in society with no parental supervision? Mothers are jailed for leaving their kids alone, and shamed for being helicopter parents when they don’t leave their kids alone. We just can’t win!
I grew up in the 90s with 2 parents working 2 jobs and the 3 of us kids definitely played outside until streetlights came on. Summers we had a morning pool dropoff and played there all day with swim and dive practice to begin and end. We did some camps throughout.
I don’t think ‘no kids left to play outside because everyone has to work outside the home’ is true - I didn’t have any friends who were single-income earner families. And we all played together in the neighborhood.
It’s instead a cultural shift of prioritizing extra-curriculars, travel sports, curricular enhancement, tutoring, and yes, the shame of letting your kids run amok. The absence of places for kids to run amok. Suburban and exurban sprawl.
But we can’t blame those shifts on “careerism” because anecdotally, I can prove it false times a thousand.
This is generally how our summer is - in a small city in central Texas. Lots of mothers who stay at home, lots of kids around, and a much lower cost of living.
Yes. I still schedule almost every week of summer for my 12 year old. If we don't, for a certainty, that will be the week that none of his friends are around because they're at camp, or on a road trip, or at their grandparents' house. No kids around for a week when you're trying to work is utterly torturous. He'll wind up either watching five hours of YouTube shorts or arguing with us about watching five hours of YouTube shorts. Then what will the parenting critics have to say about that?
The thing I liked most about the ‘90s was not hearing everyone’s not-well-thought-out hot take disguised as a proclamation handed down from on high.
Listen fr this part ^^
AMEN. (Also: I'm from The Netherlands, our summer break is 6 weeks and I'm already dreading it. We don't (really...) have camps, so that's a big difference I think, but 12 weeks??? How??!)
I break out in a cold sweat when I realize that one day they’ll be in school and then I won’t know what to do!
This article has really struck a cord with me. It’s a summary of so much of what has changed about and shapes our society - women in the work force, housing affordability, daycare, smaller families - but could be construed flippantly. Is it possible that you are living the dream? Or at the very least what feminists thought would be the dream “back in the day”? Women wanted to be like men and work - now they’re working. Us out there being boss ladies has driven up the GDP which has made everything more expensive and ensured that we have to stay out there being boss ladies. Now we’re working our asses off to pay other people to take care of our kids. And on and on it goes. We of course don’t want to go “back in the day” and erase all the advances women have made but it does seem we’ve lost some things along the way.
Uhm. As a mother of 4 mostly school age children in the 90’s. I did not get to sleep in and didn’t have time to read magazines. I had to quit reading the article at that very beginning point.
I think the larger point of the article is that both my memory of being a child is likely not accurate - that is, people are nostalgic for something that *didn't exist* in the first place because they loved being kids and were fundamentally unconcerned with what their parents were doing. Also, even if it was reality for some families, the idea that the kind of summer I am describing is desirable is ultimately absurd and unhelpful in 2025. Maybe consider continuing to read the rest!
I did not be to be unfair. I did read through it. Yes, if we have security and love childhood is something to look back on with fondness.
Thank you for pointing out the obvious, which is the world is not safe for our kids, and there are no kids left outside to play with because everyone has to work outside the home.
If society is not going to provide any protection for our kids, why are parents shamed for not letting their kids run around in society with no parental supervision? Mothers are jailed for leaving their kids alone, and shamed for being helicopter parents when they don’t leave their kids alone. We just can’t win!
I grew up in the 90s with 2 parents working 2 jobs and the 3 of us kids definitely played outside until streetlights came on. Summers we had a morning pool dropoff and played there all day with swim and dive practice to begin and end. We did some camps throughout.
I don’t think ‘no kids left to play outside because everyone has to work outside the home’ is true - I didn’t have any friends who were single-income earner families. And we all played together in the neighborhood.
It’s instead a cultural shift of prioritizing extra-curriculars, travel sports, curricular enhancement, tutoring, and yes, the shame of letting your kids run amok. The absence of places for kids to run amok. Suburban and exurban sprawl.
But we can’t blame those shifts on “careerism” because anecdotally, I can prove it false times a thousand.
This is generally how our summer is - in a small city in central Texas. Lots of mothers who stay at home, lots of kids around, and a much lower cost of living.
Yes. I still schedule almost every week of summer for my 12 year old. If we don't, for a certainty, that will be the week that none of his friends are around because they're at camp, or on a road trip, or at their grandparents' house. No kids around for a week when you're trying to work is utterly torturous. He'll wind up either watching five hours of YouTube shorts or arguing with us about watching five hours of YouTube shorts. Then what will the parenting critics have to say about that?
I could have written this, only sub 1977 and 2005.
This makes me really curious what kids now (or recently grown kids) look back on with the same nostalgia I have for 90s summers