• Avid Amoeba@lemmy.ca
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    9 months ago

    As someone who’s grown up in one of those and now rearing a child in Canada, I’d like to tell you that it was an absolutely incredible place to grow up in. The urban planning is such that there’s parks with kid playgrounds sprinkled between the buildings. There’s ample trees. There’s schools and kindergartens at walking distance where kids would often walk alone to/fro. There’s convenient public transit stops. There’s density that lets kids make tons of friends and always have someone to play with without “playdates.” Parenting in such a social environment is so much easier than what parents face in Toronto, it’s not even funny.

    E: Oh and the square footage in the average commie block apt is equivalent to a large old-school 2 or 3-bedroom apartment in Toronto. Most are family-sized units.

    • gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de
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      9 months ago

      There’s density that lets kids make tons of friends and always have someone to play with without “playdates.”

      man, that’s what i missed as a kid sooo much. i would have needed this.

          • Avid Amoeba@lemmy.ca
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            9 months ago

            Ah. That makes sense. Let me make you feel better. In some provinces in Canada (or all?) children can’t be left alone, without adult supervision until the age of 12. It’s illegal and parents get in trouble for it. Even leaving your kid to play in your backyard in the suburb while you’re in the shower can become a problem if your bored neighbour calls the authorities. Imagine growing up with that kind of lack of autonomy. Even if there are kids around and even if there’s public transit. I still heven’t figured out how to workaround that for my kid but I suspect I’m gonna be breaking the law. 😂

            • Lucelu2@lemmy.zip
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              3 months ago

              It is very generational. Sorry to be part of the helicopter parent generation. However, as an early GenX I was a free-range parent and the local neighbor parents did NOT APPROVE. I had to search for people that had my same heart. It was wonderful to find an adult willing to let me drop our boys off at the movies and then she would pick them up at the end. They figured out how to purchase snacks, find their seats and how to get out the right entrance.