Why Is It Hard to Make Friends Over 30? (2012)

Re:Why Is It Hard to Make Friends Over 30? (2012) by sykh on Sunday May 06, 2018 @07:48PM (#17009342)

It started in the 80s with the Jacob Wetterling [1] kidnapping and things like the McMartin preschool trial [2]. Stranger danger, fear of crime (it was much higher in the 80s than now) and whatnot has lead parents being overly afraid to let their kids roam.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Wetterling

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McMartin_preschool_trial

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Re:Why Is It Hard to Make Friends Over 30? (2012) by orbitur on Sunday May 06, 2018 @09:58PM (#17009871)

I think this might have contributed, but a larger contributor is likely the explosion of housing developments with larger lot sizes and suburbs-of-suburbs/exurbs, which prevent a kid from knowing any other kids living within a mile radius.

We're a part of the problem, my daughter is lucky she can walk to one of her schoolfriends houses. Her other besties are a minimum 30 minute walk, but they all attend the same school they're zoned for.

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Re:Why Is It Hard to Make Friends Over 30? (2012) by adrianratnapala on Sunday May 06, 2018 @11:48PM (#17010281)

But that kind of distance was pretty normal for me too growing up in Brisbane Australia in the '90s.

Though that statistic is skewed by me being a nerdchild with few friends...

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Re:Why Is It Hard to Make Friends Over 30? (2012) by toomanybeersies on Monday May 07, 2018 @03:02AM (#17010863)

> Her other besties are a minimum 30 minute wa

That's what bikes are for though, right?

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Re:Why Is It Hard to Make Friends Over 30? (2012) by orbitur on Monday May 07, 2018 @01:53PM (#17014811)

Here's where I let armchair "back in my day" parents down: I don't trust the drivers here. We also have massive elevation diffs and no sidewalks anywhere. Some ditches are basically cliffs.

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Re:Why Is It Hard to Make Friends Over 30? (2012) by sizzle on Monday May 07, 2018 @05:26AM (#17011360)

Also I've noticed the proliferation of parents using 'kid tracking' apps for Android along with 'find my phone' iOS type tracking for their kids phones to keep tabs on them for peace of mind (find my phone is this a feature out of the box for iPhones?).

I think this helicopter parent micromanagement has just exploded with smartphone gps availability whereas in the 90's parents were pulling out the ol' paper map before road trips and maybe had a malfunctioning Tom Tom gps. Would love to see some data on tech savvy parents tracking their kids, anyone know about this?

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Re:Why Is It Hard to Make Friends Over 30? (2012) by badwolf on Monday May 07, 2018 @02:04PM (#17014913)

My brother recently moved into a new neighborhood. His 9 year old daughter/my niece made a friend with a kid down the street (3 or 4 houses down)

My brother wouldn't let her go visit them before he got her a GPS tracking smartwatch with LTE for kids.

(We grew up riding our bikes to/from school, going and playing with neighborhood kids, wandering around, etc...)

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Re:Why Is It Hard to Make Friends Over 30? (2012) by scarface74 on Sunday May 06, 2018 @08:10PM (#17009448)

In the 80s, the danger was very real in Atlanta....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlanta_murders_of_1979%E2%80%...

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Re:Why Is It Hard to Make Friends Over 30? (2012) by sykh on Sunday May 06, 2018 @08:43PM (#17009599)

That was for a brief period of time. Statisticallly stranger danger is way overblown.

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