However did we manage to "survive" summers when we were kids?  Yes, I'm a boomer, and yes, I grew up in one of those neighbourhoods awash with kids of all ages, playing outside from early morning until dusk and your parents yelled from the front stoop to come in for a bath it was getting dark...

My memories of summers aren't of summer camps and scheduled activities (there were very few of those, and they cost money) but of languid days playing softball with whomever you met at the local field, ante-aye-over at a neighbour's house, tag, hide-and-seek, kick the can, mother, may I?, hopscotch, skip rope, make-a-tent in the backyard, build a fort in a tree....the list goes on.

We didn't expect our parents to provide us entertainment; we played at whatever amused us that day. Were we bored? Not often, and when we complained, my mother said, "Go ride your bike."

So, what's changed?