I would say its rooted in our tendency to reminisce over positive emotions instead of negative ones. I think people get especially nostalgic about childhood because your emotions as a child are just more raw, both positive and negative.

I can confirm that stuff was much more exciting in my 30's than it is now I'm in my 50's, but was more exciting still when I was a kid. The reason for me is partly that there were so many things I could experience for the first time, combined with a general sense of optimism and endless possibility about what could happen in the future. The world was full of unknowns that have gradually become known, which is comparatively dull.

I guess a lot of younger people today might not feel that same sense of optimism, since it was largely connected to hopes about where technology and social development might take us, and if the last decade or two is anything to go by, it doesn't look so promising.

No, it's definitely that first thing...

Even worse are the parents who subject their children to total surveillance and dont allow them to do anything they perceive dangerous, even if the real risks are negligent. A friend of mine married, she already had a child from a prior relationship. That child had some issues learning english in school, so my girlfriend at the time offered to give her some lessons.

They lived a bit outside of town, but with good public transport connections. They absolutely denied that this 14 y.o. takes the train, switches into the subway (not even leaving the station, transfer would have been direct) and walks about 4 minutes from the station to us, because the district we live in is "so dangerous and full of immigrants" (The way would have passed a small tower which served as apartments for medical personell of a hospital and a childcare facility). They insisted on driving her everywhere - and this behavior was the default. In comparison, when i grew up, the first 2 weeks of my school life my mother accompanied me, made me learn the path and told me on which corners i should watch out, and that was it. I switched school in the 3rd year, which included taking public transport at the age of 8 - one day of training was enough.

This girl suffered from having no fucking clue about the world because she never was allowed to experience the world on her terms, which was also her main issue regarding learning - her mother (who did not have any higher education) insisted on learning with her even when the material was more than mom could handle, but never teaching her HOW to learn, which is a damn important skill to have. All forms of responsibility for her own life were held back from that poor girl. She was so naive that would bet my left arm that she will be scammed and fucked over on a regular basis.

These fears came from her mom being a teen mom, which meant she wanted to "protect" her. In reality she laid the groundwork for another generation of teenage pregnancy.

They then had a son, and as soon as he was able to run around they slapped a goddamn GPS watch with automatic alerts if he should move a bit outside of very restrictively defined borders (which means they went off far too often and they would call him on this watch every time, ingraining into the child from as young as possible that his parents watch his every movement) and with the option to listen in at every moment of his life.

Some people shouldn't have kids.

That's a fair point.

Nostalgia can start any time for a certain type of person. And the average age of first-time parents has been steadily increasing for the last 50 years. It's nearly 30 now. And as an average, that means plenty of those people are well into their 30s or even early 40s.

I did. I had and extremely happy childhood, which just makes adulthood that much more unbearable.

Why would they not be included?

Now it’s “There’s no way out of here”.