Your kids play on your lawn? Mine don’t, they much prefer the park, that’s why I’m going full tilt into meadowizing my lawn.
It’s also worth noting that there’s almost no kids on our block, despite it being a pretty new neighborhood, because we’re one of a very small handful of younger families that were fortunate enough that they could actually afford to buy a home. Almost everyone else in the neighborhood is older, and their kids have already grown up, because that’s largely the demographic that could afford these houses. It makes me sad for my kids a lot, because there’s really not much to do outside except look at everyone else’s identical homes and kick rocks. We could be doing a lot better than this as a society.
I’m not saying more can’t be done and we’ll see how the past few years affect this, but if there really aren’t any gen z’ers on your block you’re an outlier.
Contrary to what Fox News would have you believe, snatching kinds up out of parks is a really, really rare thing, especially if the park is busy. Bad guys generally don’t like to be seen doing bad guy shit, and it’s kinda hard not to be seen at a busy public park.
A little less seriously, I did grow up in a rural area and had a forest as my back yard. I really wish more children got to grow up around a wild space like that, rather than deeply managed and heavily sanitized parks and back yards.
It can be both…doesn’t have to be all or nothing. The issue is 99% of suburbia is lawn, and only like 5% of it is used out of the year.
There is an egregious imbalance that needs remediation because the lawns are destroying ecosystems, pollinators and contributing to toxic runoff (rainwater isn’t absorbed by lawns due to their shallow roots). The rainwater pulls all the fertilizer & roundup into the storm water discharge and feeds it into rivers and lakes (hence the algal bloom that is overtaking many lakes in the US).
Gotta decide between a small risk of abduction or some risk of stealing a fun part of childhood.
Surprised to find a ~quarter of abductions are by strangers :o Mostly relatives for sure but 25% is high.
I’d like to think I’d YOLO it and the odds would play in my favor 😬 Same as walking to school or something… car could hit a family walking, but probablyyyy won’t.
Maybe in our Big Brother future abduction will be almost impossible due to iris scanners or thought police or something draconian. Yayy
![[meme] Lawns and car storage — name a more wasteful use of land](https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/c6a93d55-ab0b-4275-bd92-43931e7b7d77.jpeg){kind=link}
Your kids play on your lawn? Mine don’t, they much prefer the park, that’s why I’m going full tilt into meadowizing my lawn.
It’s also worth noting that there’s almost no kids on our block, despite it being a pretty new neighborhood, because we’re one of a very small handful of younger families that were fortunate enough that they could actually afford to buy a home. Almost everyone else in the neighborhood is older, and their kids have already grown up, because that’s largely the demographic that could afford these houses. It makes me sad for my kids a lot, because there’s really not much to do outside except look at everyone else’s identical homes and kick rocks. We could be doing a lot better than this as a society.
Data doesn’t really support your experience, and that being average. A dip for the millennials but gen z is doing quite well on home ownership. https://fortune.com/2024/01/17/redfin-baby-boomers-gen-z-housing-market-homeownership/
I’m not saying more can’t be done and we’ll see how the past few years affect this, but if there really aren’t any gen z’ers on your block you’re an outlier.
Thanks for sharing! My neighborhood must be an outlier, then. We have almost no young families on our block.
Not everyone wants to risk their children getting stolen at a park.
Having a backyard lawn is a safe way to let kids play while adults don’t have to supervise.
Front lawns aren’t really useful but id absolutely have some form of backyard lawn even if it’s AstroTurf once I have a house.
Contrary to what Fox News would have you believe, snatching kinds up out of parks is a really, really rare thing, especially if the park is busy. Bad guys generally don’t like to be seen doing bad guy shit, and it’s kinda hard not to be seen at a busy public park.
A little less seriously, I did grow up in a rural area and had a forest as my back yard. I really wish more children got to grow up around a wild space like that, rather than deeply managed and heavily sanitized parks and back yards.
It can be both…doesn’t have to be all or nothing. The issue is 99% of suburbia is lawn, and only like 5% of it is used out of the year.
There is an egregious imbalance that needs remediation because the lawns are destroying ecosystems, pollinators and contributing to toxic runoff (rainwater isn’t absorbed by lawns due to their shallow roots). The rainwater pulls all the fertilizer & roundup into the storm water discharge and feeds it into rivers and lakes (hence the algal bloom that is overtaking many lakes in the US).
That’s too bad
Gotta decide between a small risk of abduction or some risk of stealing a fun part of childhood.
Surprised to find a ~quarter of abductions are by strangers :o Mostly relatives for sure but 25% is high.
I’d like to think I’d YOLO it and the odds would play in my favor 😬 Same as walking to school or something… car could hit a family walking, but probablyyyy won’t.
Maybe in our Big Brother future abduction will be almost impossible due to iris scanners or thought police or something draconian. Yayy