> We used to let our kids out the front door when they were bored, now we drive them all over town for everything in their busy calendar.
Now, now. We can't really do the former any more in most of America; there's nowhere for kids to go. Overstrict zoning, and massive property developments plopped down in outlying low-land-value areas, has killed suburbia and replaced it with exurbia. Most detached single-family homes in America are now in "housing islands" in the middle of huge stretches of nothing, only accessible to urban centers by highways. (And without viable public transit accessible to said kids, because adults are too car-obsessed to fund it.)
And that's not really more or less efficient; it's just silly and self-defeating. People buy these houses precisely for the dream of suburbia; but they find it isn't there to be found. It's not a vicious cycle; it's simply a trick, a con, on the part of the property developers, misleading people into thinking they can have their whole family integrated with the life of a city despite living many miles away from it with no easy access.
A child could have a "busy calendar" in the 1950s—friends, hobbies, clubs, sports, etc.—and get along just fine, because they actually could walk to everything in town, because they functionally lived "in" the town they lived in. (Or they didn't live "in" a town at all, but rather "on a farm" — but that used to be its whole own lifestyle with its own coping mechanisms. Now suburban children may as well live on a farm as well—but without even the livestock to bother.)
Now, now. We can't really do the former any more in most of America; there's nowhere for kids to go. Overstrict zoning, and massive property developments plopped down in outlying low-land-value areas, has killed suburbia and replaced it with exurbia. Most detached single-family homes in America are now in "housing islands" in the middle of huge stretches of nothing, only accessible to urban centers by highways. (And without viable public transit accessible to said kids, because adults are too car-obsessed to fund it.)
And that's not really more or less efficient; it's just silly and self-defeating. People buy these houses precisely for the dream of suburbia; but they find it isn't there to be found. It's not a vicious cycle; it's simply a trick, a con, on the part of the property developers, misleading people into thinking they can have their whole family integrated with the life of a city despite living many miles away from it with no easy access.
A child could have a "busy calendar" in the 1950s—friends, hobbies, clubs, sports, etc.—and get along just fine, because they actually could walk to everything in town, because they functionally lived "in" the town they lived in. (Or they didn't live "in" a town at all, but rather "on a farm" — but that used to be its whole own lifestyle with its own coping mechanisms. Now suburban children may as well live on a farm as well—but without even the livestock to bother.)