4 ms·

Where I live in Western Australia, it is perfectly normal for 10-year-olds to be getting on their bikes and going round to their friends' houses after school.

Where I live in Western Australia, it is perfectly normal for 10-year-olds to be getting on their bikes and going round to their friends' houses after school. The swing towards "Fuck Around And Find Out" parenting has been going for the last ten years here, and everybody gives you rapturous applause when you encourage kids to have their own independent playtime. I have also never seen a man at a playground get dirty looks, in fact there are more men out with their kids than women on the weekends (fewer during weekdays).

mothballed 5mo ago
In USA bikes are often slow enough the Karens can still stalk them and have police/CPS snatch them for being out alone. So you find kids in groups on dirt bikes or motorcycle tier "electric bicycles." The Karens can't catch them so they can actually get away and be free. Glorious to watch, aint no one can keep up with kids who practice being on a dirt bike all day who can cut right off the roads into the backcountry they know better than anyone else.
- 7402 5mo ago
  I don't allege bad intent, but I wish people would stop using "Karen" as an insult, because I know some perfectly nice people with the misfortune to have been given that name.
- eleventen 5mo ago
  This is a weird take but I think I like it?
thepryz 5mo ago
Speaking as someone who has gotten dirty looks and questioned by mothers who wanted to know who I was, why I was at the playground, and which children were mine, it does happen or at least it did years ago when my kids were much younger. It’s a frustrating experience that changed how I interacted with other kids on the playground that weren’t mine. It made me more careful about whether I would let another kid join our game of tag or push the kid in the swing next to us when they asked. Sad really, and truly hope things have changed.
lazyasciiart 5mo ago
Funnily enough, I know a guy who went into teaching early primary school in Western Australia 20 years ago, and got driven out by the constant suspicion and ever increasing supervision imposed “for his own safety” - no touching kids, at all, to the point of not helping up a kid who falls on the playground; get a female teacher to do it.

mothballed 5mo ago

In USA bikes are often slow enough the Karens can still stalk them and have police/CPS snatch them for being out alone. So you find kids in groups on dirt bikes or motorcycle tier "electric bicycles." The Karens can't catch them so they can actually get away and be free. Glorious to watch, aint no one can keep up with kids who practice being on a dirt bike all day who can cut right off the roads into the backcountry they know better than anyone else.

7402 5mo ago
I don't allege bad intent, but I wish people would stop using "Karen" as an insult, because I know some perfectly nice people with the misfortune to have been given that name.
eleventen 5mo ago
This is a weird take but I think I like it?

thepryz 5mo ago

Speaking as someone who has gotten dirty looks and questioned by mothers who wanted to know who I was, why I was at the playground, and which children were mine, it does happen or at least it did years ago when my kids were much younger. It’s a frustrating experience that changed how I interacted with other kids on the playground that weren’t mine. It made me more careful about whether I would let another kid join our game of tag or push the kid in the swing next to us when they asked. Sad really, and truly hope things have changed.

lazyasciiart 5mo ago

Funnily enough, I know a guy who went into teaching early primary school in Western Australia 20 years ago, and got driven out by the constant suspicion and ever increasing supervision imposed “for his own safety” - no touching kids, at all, to the point of not helping up a kid who falls on the playground; get a female teacher to do it.