Yeah, growing up in a small town was great. We used to go all over the place on our own, let alone the hours we could spend out of eyesight in our own (20 acre) yard/pond/woods. I looked it up on Google earth recently, and was happy to see it hadn't been developed.

It's not just that we're more paranoid than our parents, though. It's that the world has changed, and it's difficult. The SO & I were talking about it lately, and I don't know how I'd protect a kid from junk on the internet, let alone the larger world.

We're stricter with our students than we would have wanted for ourselves. Although that's partly to do with cultural stuff; part of what we do is provide structure and discipline that they might not otherwise get.

I grew up within walking distance of 2 very safe playgrounds in the suburbs. My kids will grow up within walking distance of Prospect Park - fantastic that we're so close by (one of the main reasons we bought this place), but no way in HELL will they be going there alone. Ever.

I remember going to hang out a friend's house, and we'd go wading in the creek behind the subdivision, catching crawdaddies, dangling our feet in the water to stay cool, and just having a ball. We couldn't have been older than 11.

IOnatureN, the cicadas are coming to Chicagoland! (Chicago Tribune registration req'd.) I remember the last wave of cicadas back in 1990--talk about loud!!

Who can tell me anything about Raleigh, North Carolina. Would I ever want to live there?

We have friends live in Studio City right next to a medium-sized park. All the kids on the block play together and run in and out of each others' houses, and over to the park, where there is always an impromptu basketball game or games of tag or whatever. It's hard to find neighborhoods like that these days, however. The only way they could afford to buy there was to get a really rundown house and spend the last eight years fixing it up.

What do people think about the trend of master planned developments? The ones that are trying to recreate the village feel, walkable shops, small enclaves within a larger development, that sort of thing?

Would I ever want to live there?

Good God, no. But you'd want to live in either Durham or Chapel Hill/Carrboro!

There is some big storm heading our way, but the forecasts are contradictory. The Chicago Tribune says rain, with wet snow in the "far Northern and Western sections," but Yahoo says Chicago will get less than one inch of snow and Evanston will get 6 to ten inches of snow. (Evanston boarders Chicago on Chicago's North side.) So I guess there will be rain or snow, and it all depends where the boundary between the rain and the snow ends up....

Yeah, even with my overprotective mother, I would just run home from school, throw my book bag in the door, yell "Goin' out!" and as long as I was in shouting distance, it was all good. (Shouting distance was quite a long range for my mother.)

As long as I was home before the streetlights came on, it was all good.

Cindy, how do you feel about 90 degree temperatures? Also, would you miss snow?