For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for February 06, 2016

Elizabeth makes a good point.

Why did they go out, in the first place??

Yeah it’s too cold!

I think Mom sent them out !!!!! 8^0

I remember being a free-range kid: winter, summer, sled, bike, skates. (I now so appreciate the freedom I had.) Now-a-days SOMEbody’d call protection services.

Lynn’s Note*This was directly from my childhood. Mom would push us out the door and tell us not to come in until lunchtime. We’d play in the yard until our fingers were stuck to our mittens with ice, and our noses were running to our chins.

This is a tough one. I’ve been on both sides. The reason I sometimes do it to my kids (yes, even in the snow, though here in NC it is never that very cold) is because the magic almost always happened outside, and I never ONCE regret being told to go outside and not come back until _________.

We did it to my kids last week, when it was unexpectedly warm (no jacket needed), and they played on a friend’s trampoline and biked and ran and didn’t touch an electronic all day long. A couple weeks before, I shoved them out the door and they sledded with neighbor friends all morning and most of the afternoon. Were they cold? Yes. But not dangerously. Do they regret it? No. They’d’ve stayed in if I let them, but ask them now, and they are really glad they were out.

There were odd fun times playing games at home, but most of my best memories are times I was out exploring on my own.

My parents LOCKED the doors to keep my sister and I outside in winter. All the neighbors and relatives knew it, but did nothing about it. My sister and I agree now that we felt like un-lovable kids that no one wanted to be around.

I’ve gone through the stages of grief with his laments. Now, I think to myself that it would take someone with a heart of stone to not laugh out loud at his whining.

That’s because it’s all made up.

Some parents do this with love, others do it because we kids were too much bother. Yes, I remember.