Freedom Then & Now: Childhood

 🌱 Freedom Then & Now: Childhood, Risk, and Change 🌱

Do you remember climbing trees 🌳, playing outside until the streetlights came on 💡, or making your own adventures with friends? For many of us who grew up in the 60s and 70s, childhood meant freedom. We wandered, explored, and tested limits with little supervision.

But that freedom was a double-edged sword ⚔️. Alongside the joy of independence, there were dangers—accidents, bullying, even serious harms—that went unseen because adults weren’t always watching. Many of us carry both the thrill of those times ✨ and the scars 💔.

Today, things look very different. Many kids spend less time outside, especially in cities like Vancouver 🌆. Parents often feel pressure to supervise every move 👀. We want to protect our children from the pain we knew—and yet sometimes, in our effort to shield them, we create new struggles. Kids push back, they rebel, and we’re left wondering: did we hold on too tight, or not tight enough? 🤔

In Mexico 🇲🇽, I notice more children still playing outside, closer to what I remember. Here in Vancouver, it’s screens 📱, schedules 📅, and a lot of “indoors.” That shift says a lot about culture, safety fears, and the way society has changed.

And then there’s the deeper story 🌎. For Indigenous families, freedom in childhood was tied to land, tradition, and community 🪶. Children learned by being part of daily life, taking risks, and being trusted with responsibility. Colonial systems—Residential Schools, the Sixties Scoop, foster care—disrupted that, replacing love and freedom with control and trauma. Those wounds ripple through generations, shaping how parents today carry both fear and love ❤️ in their choices.

For me, being a parent meant a constant balancing act ⚖️. I sometimes over-supervised because I didn’t want my child to get hurt. They pushed against that, and sometimes it hurt us both. And yet, tonight I got photos from them 📸—and my heart felt lighter 💞. That love never stops.

Parenting changes everything. It gives you a kind of understanding that people without children might never fully grasp. You don’t want your child to suffer, but you also know the world is full of lessons you can’t shield them from.

Maybe the truth is that freedom, risk, and love are all woven together 🧵. And as parents, we walk that edge every day.

✨ Reflection Question:
👉 What kind of freedom did you have as a child? How does it shape the way you see kids growing up today?