Childhood, Today's Kids...and The Goonies

[Nathan Dodge]

I found the following post in an IMDB thread for 1985 movie, The Goonies:


"The Goonies is one of my favorite movies. I can only dream about doing half as many things as these kids do in this movie. I love the outdoors, I love being on my bike, I love exploring, and I love hanging out with my friends. And most of all, I love a great adventure. It's unfortunate for my generation that we can't do anything independently without our parents worrying or checking up on us every 5 minutes. I can't tell you what I would give to be able to have a childhood as fun as you guys had. The closest thing I have to getting out is going to the mall five minutes away and walking around, wrecking (mild) havoc.

My parents freak out if I tell them that my friends and I missed the first showing of a movie and we have to wait an extra half hour until the next. They don't allow me to stay home alone. Hell, I'm not even allowed to walk our dog around the block by myself.

Kids can't do anything anymore. We are practically inclined to sit on the couch, playing with our games or laptops or phones all day. If we have homework, which we always have a TON of, that is the first priority. You can forget being able to catch a movie with friends on a school night. Where I live, if you are under 18, you are not allowed to be out past 9:30 doing anything. They won't sell you a movie ticket past 7:30. Most parks will kick you out right before dark. If cops see you on the street and think you are underage, they take you down to the station and get your parents to pick you up.

Kids are bombarded with stories about kidnappings and murders of other adolescents. We are warned about the risks of going out without adult supervision. Gang violence is everywhere, and creeps are never far off. It isn't really hard for me to see why parents are so worrisome all the time. The stories we are told are meant to strike fear into our hearts.

Life is boring. That's why the Goonies will always be one of my favorite movies. It's fun. It is the childhood that I will never, ever be able to have. You guys had it made in the 80's."
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Okay...

I realize that kids of a recent vintage have micromanagement-style parents who overprotect them, but I always believed that these kids were none the wiser about how their lives are regulated. However, when they see 1980s adventure movies, they realize that they are missing out on playing outside and it came as a surprise to me that any kid today would hold the '80s in high esteem, but then I take that decade for granted, having grown up in that time.

Thoughts?

 

[Undertow]

The 70's and 80's seemed to have a particular feel to their movies.

Take The 'Burbs, for instance. Striking out the crazy murderous foreigners and just centering on the "day-to-day" life of the characters, you'd think the 80's was also a fantastic time to live in a suburb, or break into houses, or get away with blowing up homes - or at the least, sitting on your porch drinking beer with all your friends and screaming, "Pizza Dude's here!".

Or Meatballs. If summer camps were really that fun, would they have bothered with the movie?

Forgive me if I seem a bit cynical, but Hollywood, and especially the 70's and 80's, hit a magical moment in youngsters' lives during those eras. Unfortunately, it wasn't reality. As a child of the 80's, I can remember being poor and hungry; I can remember playing in the dirt for hours or not seeing my dad because he had 3 jobs. That's not terribly magical. I remember my mom telling me about stars in the windows of houses, or strangers kidnapping kids. Heck, don't forget Johnny Gosch (coincidentally from my town). I know I didn't find a pirate treasure. I found dead animals sometimes, or pornographic magazines strewn about parks (that's another story in and of itself). But they didn't make movies about that stuff, thank god. So [huh]

All this is not to say that kids aren't under alot of pressure in today's hypersexualized, hyperwealthy world. And yeah, I own the Goonies, loved it. But that's not reality. Never was, never will be.

 

[PoohBang]

I'm not sure what your asking? Are you saying that the goonies was every 80's kid life? please explain what you're getting at..

 

[Undertow]

I'm not sure what your asking? Are you saying that the goonies was every 80's kid life? please explain what you're getting at..

Perhaps:

"it came as a surprise to me that any kid today would hold the [typical] '80s [childhood] in high esteem"?

And just to add something to my last post - it doesn't seem any stranger than a child of the 80's holding a "typical" 50's childhood in high esteem based on television shows like Leave It to Beaver.

 

[PoohBang]

don't all kids hold a show or film in high esteem if it transports them to a happy place or emotion or excitement? That's why we watch tv and films isn't it?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Keep in mind that those 80s kid films were being specifically made to evoke the childhoods of the generation that made the films, not necessarily the generation that viewed them. "The Goonies," especially, owes a great deal to an "Our Gang" short from 1934, "Mama's Little Pirate," which was extremely familiar to the generation who'd grown up watching it on television in the fifties and sixties. It was that stylized image of childhood that the movie was referencing, not anything that was actually common in the '80s.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Though having grown up in that time frame -- the '70s and '80s -- I can see how a kid today can look at it as a sort of magical time. Back then it was still possible to have a Huck Finn sort of childhood of going out all day with your friends (or even by yourself!) exploring, playing in the dirt in a vacant lot (especially one with big dirt piles), etc.

 

[John in Covina]

I question whether there is actually more violence directed against children today than in earlier decades.

In the past many things did not get reported.

The sensationalism and immediate nature of the news media propels a hysteria that seems like some sort of feeding frenzy. (What is the name of the Twilight Zone episode - it is something like: The Monsters Are Coming to Maple Street.)

For me the 1960's and 70's were really quite nice as a kid and teen. If you had a bicycle and friends you could go all over and do all sorts of stuff. in the summer we left the house after breakfast, sometimes came home for lunch - sometimes not, and returned for dinner. In the winter we usually did not go as far. We went to the beach, the parks and the mall without parental supervision from around 7 or 8 years old. At 5 -6 yo i had to stay with in a block or 2 of the house. I remember being 7 and getting sent to buy gas at the Sinclair gas station for my dad for the lawn mower. (I asked the attendant how to work the pump! he showed me and i filled the can from then on by myself.) At 7 I got sent on Sundays to the newstand / luncheonette in town for the paper by myself. Adults were regarded as people in charge and you could ask anyone questions if you were shopping for groceries for mom. The people around you were your neighbors and fellow townsfolk not evil sick pedofiles with perversion, torture and murder on their minds.

Still occassionally you might get roughed up by bullies, but that was rare. You also had to wander into places that you knew nothing about and not catch some of the warning signs given off by the bullies to get into that position.

All in all fear was not the abiding rule of life then.

 

[PoohBang]

I wouldn't say that Goonies was a remake of Mama's Little Pirate by any means, but to Chris Columbus it might sparked the idea.

 

[Nathan Dodge]

All this is not to say that kids aren't under alot of pressure in today's hypersexualized, hyperwealthy world. And yeah, I own the Goonies, loved it. But that's not reality. Never was, never will be.

I believe the point the IMDB poster was making is that he wouldn't even be remotely allowed to go out on his own and have any kind of adventure...playing on dirt piles, sailing on a barge on the canal, building treehouses in remote areas of town. You know, the kinds of things that kids from several generations did and took for granted. Things that are now apparently off limits and not a part of the childhood experience. No one's claiming that the fantastical events that were seen in The Goonies movie ever approximated reality.

As for the film itself, I never warmed to it, though I was quite fourteen when it hit theaters, so perhaps I was just out of its intended target audience, even if my childhood friends who were the same age as me did love it, and in the years before the film's release we had many of our own "Goonies"-type adventures--but having seen the movie again recently, what made me lukewarm to it in 1985 is what I still found lacking in it now. I was hoping that the movie would've focused more on their friendship instead of bringing the big brother and those girls along. I'd have to wait for Stand By Me for that story, which was about friendship and adventure...Still, I watch The Goonies with a degree of interest and some nostalgia, but I feel the movie was a missed opportunity, at least with how the characters were handled.

 

[Nathan Dodge]

or strangers kidnapping kids. Heck, don't forget Johnny Gosch (coincidentally from my town).

I'll call your Johnny Gosch and raise you an Adam Walsh who was kidnapped--and murdered-- in my hometown in 1981.

I also wonder if many TFLers allow their kids outside to roam and play as many of them used to do. Even if they did, I'm betting that the highly-regimented, tightly-monitored world of our current nanny society would come crashing down with a vengeance on these exceptional parents who buck these oppressive trends.

 

[W-D Forties]

This is an interesting thread. I was a kid (pre teen that is) in the mid to late 70's and I remember friends knocking at the door and going out to play unsupervised for hours on end, building dens in the trees, running around the streets screaming, making mud pies. If parents worried about any of us they kept it quiet.
Now I'm a parent myself I worry about everything. I do try to get my kids out of the house without me, together as my eldest in 12 and his brother is 7, but they always seem to want me to go with them, I think I am a security blanket for them. My main fear is traffic, not paedophiles as they both know what to do and what not to do if approached.
The thing I find strange is that if I see a child (or even a young teenager) out alone these days I think it's strange, as, I suspect do many adults, and I really wish I didn't.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I was loose on the streets at the age of five -- I walked to school, to the store, to the park, and anywhere else I needed to go. But we lived in the kind of town and in the kind of times where if any adult saw anyone's kid about to get into trouble they felt free to intervene: "HEY GET OFF THAT LEDGE YOU STUPID KID!"

Would today's adults do that? Or would they "refuse to get involved" for fear of being accused of being some kind of pervert?

 

[Feraud]

Even if they did, I'm betting that the highly-regimented, tightly-monitored world of our current nanny society would come crashing down with a vengeance on these exceptional parents who buck these oppressive trends.

You might be surprised to know just how much the opposite a good deal parental supervision is today.
Far from being highly-regimented, tightly-monitored and nanny-ish, you may be glad(?) to know many parents let their children roam the streets (and online) very un-monitored.
The nanny state of parenting is the exception and not the rule.
Consider this, we cannot have such a decline in standards if parents are doing such a thoroughly regimented job of raising children can we?

 

[Nathan Dodge]

You might be surprised to know just how much the opposite a good deal parental supervision is today.
Far from being highly-regimented, tightly-monitored and nanny-ish, you may be glad(?) to know many parents let their children roam the streets (and online) very un-monitored.
The nanny state of parenting is the exception and not the rule.
Consider this, we cannot have such a decline in standards if parents are doing such a thoroughly regimented job of raising children can we?

Seems to me we get the worst of both worlds today. Parents are permissive and overprotective. At the same time they prohibit their kids to run free out of doors, they indulge them in an anything goes atmosphere within the "safety" of their homes. Roam the internet unchecked? Sure! Walk together to the movies with a couple of other friends? No way, that's dangerous!

This past Summer, like the many Summers before it over the last twenty years or so, I saw many empty streets with kids under lock and key all in the name of protection. And if there are legions of murderous pedophiles riding around like Road Warrior gangs, then the nearly thirty years of "Just say no to drugs" and Adam Walsh-inspired child fingerprinting-and-don't-talk-to-strangers conditioning has led to zero success in how parents raise their children.

 

[Feraud]

Seems to me we get the worst of both worlds today. Parents are permissive and overprotective. At the same time they prohibit their kids to run free out of doors, they indulge them in an anything goes atmosphere within the "safety" of their homes. Roam the internet unchecked? Sure! Walk together to the movies with a couple of other friends? No way, that's dangerous!

I think you are right on this .

 

[IndianaWay]

I can't help but think of a line from "Finding Nemo" where Nemo's dad says something to the effect of, "I promised I would never let anything bad happen to him!" And Dorrie replies, "What an odd thing to promise."

Seems to me that sometimes, we, as parents are so bent on the idea of not letting anything bad happen we can stifle the possibility of anything good happening. It's a hard balance (and I say that as a parent of 3 awesome kids ages 12-17).

 

[LizzieMaine]

Thing is, it's impossible to keep all bad things from happening. The first rule of life is that bad things *will* happen, with no explanation, and you can't prevent them all. Better you should prepare your kid for the inevitablity of bad things happening and teach him how to cope than to pretend that somehow *your kid* will be different.

Sit down with your kid when he or she is seven, and read them the book of Job. Worked for me.

 

[overlord4215]

i'll throw my 2 cents in here .I grew up in N.Y.C. in the 80's but i lived in a nice urban residential neighborhood in Brooklyn .I got up early on my days off from school called on my friends down the block and proceeded to make some adventure . I had numerous all to real looking cap guns and never had the police question me or worse . In fact i never saw the cops . we built garbage forts in the back yards with old doors and build igloos in the winter . Ok no treasure ships but we did have a large bay near us and would go fishing or exploring . All in all we were left to our own devices and we all turned out well no one was raped or molested or killed .contrast that to today the children are week raised by overprotecting parents who wont let there kids go out and just let public tv and cable kids programs turn there minds to mush .The last statement applies to where the kids would most often be the safest . Contrast this to were i work in the dark pit of hell which is named Brownsville Brooklyn parents subject there kids to every vice known, up till all hours and i wont mention the numerous shootings many of which i respond to and see the mothers holding there babies watching while we are looking for witnesses . they are always outside but they get treated more like an accessory then a child it just sad . i do miss the innocence of the 70/80's no not quite the level of goonies but it did have that feel to it and i am proud to say that i am a goonie !

 

[sheeplady]

Seems to me we get the worst of both worlds today. Parents are permissive and overprotective. At the same time they prohibit their kids to run free out of doors, they indulge them in an anything goes atmosphere within the "safety" of their homes. Roam the internet unchecked? Sure! Walk together to the movies with a couple of other friends? No way, that's dangerous!

If anything, I would think that cellphones would allow more roaming. But they don't for most middle-class kids I've seen. One of the women I worked with regularly gets 5 to 6 calls a day while at work from each of her highschool and college aged girls (she has two daughters). They ask permission for every little thing. At the same time, however, when one of them skipped half a day in high school this woman said that it was up to the school to punish her daughter if she really did skip.

It is almost like some parents have an attitude that "if I watch over every little action my children do, then obviously I am doing my job and my child can do no wrong. If you say my child did wrong, you must be wrong, because I know (control) everything they do that's important."

I learned self defense in 7th grade, following the kidnapping and killing of a local girl. I'd like to see such a program for every child above a certain age in our public schools. Not just because of kidnapping concerns, but because there is no harm in knowing how to defend yourself.