Imaybebi @keenchildtrash - Tumblr Blog

likepetalswealleventuallyfall

im laughing so hard because no matter what song you listen to

spiderman dances to the beat

no matter what song ive been testing it and lauing my ass off for an hour

creepymutelilbugger

hey guys do you want to circulate the heirloom dancing spiderman again i feel like we could stand to do that

animentality

opinions-about-tiaras

Something I think has to be considered here is that "hanging out with your friends" is, like most things kids do, a contingent activity. It requires parents to allow it.

And increasingly parents are absolutely unwilling to let their kids out of their sight. Everything must be managed or supervised.

I'm an older millennial. My niece and nephew are ten and seven respectively. They live in the same housing development my brother and I grew up in. Lots of kids their own age there, and woodland with town-maintained paths to wander in.

When I was seven I thought nothing of telling my mom "Mom, I'm going out" and getting on my bike and going wherever. Maybe my friend Steve was home. Maybe Priscilla was climbing up that one cool half-fallen tree in the forest. Maybe I'd just pile rocks in the creek.

Fast forward three and a half decades. My brother was complaining to me the other day that my niece wants to hang out with one of her friends all the time and he and said friends parents just don't have time to arrange it all. It turns out her friend lives in the same neighborhood, a quarter mile away.

And I'm like "Why are you arranging anything? Why aren't they capable of coming and going as they please? She can get on her bike and ride there."

He looked at me like I'd proposed throwing his precious angel into a shark tank. Let her wander alone? Unsupervised? Just... out there?

It also turns out, by the way, that my niece is a poor cyclist because she isn't allowed out on her bike without my brother or his wife with her.

My brother and his wife are not unique in this. I have never, ever had a conversation with parents in my age cohort who aren't raising their kids far more restrictively than we ourselves were raised. Everything is monitored. You call them out on it and the near-universal response is "It just isn't safe out there."

Now, my niece and nephew are a bit younger than teens... but with teens it gets even worse, because then their parents are still paranoid about what could happen to them, but also suspicious about what their kids will use their new teen bodies and brains to do to THEMSELVES or to others.

I wonder what percentage of the parents in that survey would be willing to, if their kids asked for the car keys to go hang out with their friends, would hand them over without a down-to-the-second itinerary, a precise list of who will be present, and a stern admonishment that they can track the car on GPS so watch out, mister. I wonder that very much.

Teens have limited agency. They have no money and their lives are controlled. You want to know why they're not doing something? Probably because their parents don't want it done.

And all this is without even getting into "maybe they're hanging out online. Why is being on a group video call in Discord talking about nothing in particular for three hours considered more problematic than hanging out at the mall talking about nothing in particular for three hours?"

(Both my local malls ban unescorted teens, by the way.)

ingridverse

Over my lifetime (I'm 63) crime has gone steadily down and fear of crime has gone steadily up. So kids who are not allowed to circle the block are in a safer environment outside than I was as a public school kid who walked half an hour unaccompanied to see a movie without my parents giving a damn as long as I paid for my own ticket

inside-my-gay-mind

hyp3rdr1v3

Real

mcbride

Katie McGrath as MORGANA PENDRAGON MERLIN 2.11 The Witch's Quickening

frailbug

featuring my broken laptop

lezkissgifs

Drive-Away Dolls (2024) dir. Ethan Coen

picsthatmakeyougohmm

violottie

but yeah. "what about the hostages" right? uh-huh.

from Sarahofmagdalene, 11/Mar/2024:

ashstfu

forever in awe of people who pay attention. people who wait for you while you tie your shoes while the others have walked away. when they continue listening intently while the rest of the group stopped listening. noticing your moments of silence when everyone else hasn’t. “this made me think of you” noticing things you never even noticed about yourself. people who say “text me when you get home safe.” people who make you laugh until you cry. childhood friends who keep in touch. people with genuine intentions. people who are soft when the world has given them every opportunity to turn hard. the “let’s get ice cream” at 3am friend. the turn up the music in the car and sing friend. people whose actions match their words. people who make the world feel less chaotic. kindred spirits. the trustworthy and honest. hard workers. good listeners. clear communicators. people who love you for who you are. people who don’t ask you to be anything other than yourself. people who choose you. people who stay.