My parents used to kick me out of the house and lock the door. They wouldn't let me back inside until after sundown. I'd usually go hang out with my cousins or whoever the most recent neighbor was. I grew up in a kinda rural area with nothing but forests and swamps, so most of our days involved inventing elaborate games with one another. Like tag or hide and seek, or some very complex variation of baseball. Or maybe someone smuggled something out of the house like a Gameboy Camera, or some comics, or a cassette recorder or something and we'd spend time with that.

Also we were like 10 years old during this. Yeah. I have no idea what kids are like now or what they do. We didn't even have phones, not even 90s brick phones. Also this area had bears, occasional bobcats, cougars, and scary methheads out in the woods. The Klan was around too. And yet our parents were just like "get the fuck out of the house, go play"

i fucking hate sounding like a boomer by the way, I don't wanna sound all wistful and nostalgic. That's just the stuff I experienced