I found this drawing of "A Modern Child's Conundrum" on Twitter recently:

I think it's a hilarious, but sadly true, depiction of most American kids' suburban childhoods. 60% parking space, wide roads with speedy cars, some dead stores intermingled with some trendy smoothie shops and organic grocery stores, and "stranger danger" neighborhoods that make it seem like you're surrounded by houses that no one lives in.

I have a lot of thoughts on car-dependent suburbs, zoning, and towns, most of which are just feelings and intuition that I want to be able to articulate in the future. What this image brings to mind, however, is just how sad the options are for a kid today. It's either spend time online or go to your prescheduled lesson/practice/meetup/hangout IF your parent obliges to be your personal chauffeur. I can say this because I grew up with an alternative. I lived in an apartment complex in India where all the kids, from ages 5-17, would go downstairs and play a bunch of random games every single day, no exception. From the end of school till dinner, I would run around with my friends, inventing games and doing things without an agenda, timeline, or adult supervision. My mom would even have to come find us for dinner on some days if me and my brother tried to extend the festivities for just a little bit longer.

Those were some of the best moments growing up. It all changed when I moved to the US in 8th grade, where the pressures of academics and achievement changed hours of free play into a Google Calendar of organized "extracurriculars." Sure, it was great pursuing more respectable activities but I definitely lost a part of me when that happened. And the stories that older people have of their childhood in the US itself are something that I honestly envy. "Free play" isn't just an idealistic notion that I have of growing up. It's something that is apparently wired into the mammalian brain and necessary for proper development.

I'll have a bit more to say on this soon. Psychologist Jonathan Haidt's work on this is very interesting: he points out that the lack of free play, along with social media, are key to understanding Gen-Z's mental health crises. I recommend his book Coddling of the American Mind and especially this article on safetyism and how some parents can get arrested in the US (!) for leaving their kids unsupervised.