Quote:
Originally Posted by pepper24
I really enjoyed that type of childhood. All the kids on my street went to the same schools and played on the same sports teams growing up together. Great friendships. We had no choices and that was the right way.
Now with my kids we have kids going to different schools as parents pursue this unrealistic childhood for their kids. Kids on our street are strangers when the school down the street is just as good. A lot of friendships and fun times being missed out. Let kids be kids.
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I have the opposite view. From Grade 5 to 9, I attended a school on the opposite quadrant from where I lived, requiring a 90 minute commute by school bus everyday. In high school, I attended a school which required a one-hour commute on Calgary Transit. But I still I had a great childhood -- I had friends from my neighbourhood (typically immigrants or first-generational migrants) as well as friends from my school (who were mostly part of the white majority). If I wasn't playing sports in front of my house with my neighbourhood friends, I was playing sports with my school friends at some conveniently located central location. Looking back, I was glad I had such a wide diversity of friendships. I don't think I missed out at all. Granted, it was a different time. Even in Grade 5, my parents would let me travel across the city or to downtown on Calgary Transit all by myself to meet up with one of my school friends. Today, I rarely see kids that young travelling by themselves on city transit. It would be alot of work for parents to chauffeur their kids just to see their friends if they happen to go to a school far away.