A new survey of over 3,000 parents has crowned three Georgia communities as prime real estate for recreating those mythical childhoods where kids actually played outside until the streetlights came on.
🎯 What’s Happening: We Buy Houses In Denver surveyed parents nationwide about the best places for “80s-style childhoods” — think bicycle adventures, wandering near creeks, and kids who know their way around without GPS.
🍑 Georgia’s golden trio:
- Peachtree City claimed the top spot with its 100-plus miles of golf cart paths serving as kid highways
- Decatur earned second place for its walkable downtown and creative summer camps
- Evans rounded out the list with Clarks Hill Lake adventures and Columbia County schools
📊 Between the Lines: The survey reveals modern parents aren’t actually yearning for total Lord of the Flies scenarios. According to We Buy Houses, 66% of respondents defined “80s-style childhood” as “independence with boundaries” rather than complete unsupervised freedom.
Only 18% wanted kids playing outside totally unsupervised, while a mere 6% thought children should walk to school alone. That’s probably the same 6% that think seatbelts are some sort of government plot.
🌳 The Big Picture: Two-thirds of surveyed parents said they’d consider relocating specifically for kid-friendly, outdoor-focused communities.
Like all groups of parents from every prior generation, 83% of parents told surveyors they had more childhood freedom than today’s kids, with only 17% believing the current generation has it better. Remember “The Good Old Days” is a subjective term that is reinvented as each generation grows older.
What parents want more of for their children breaks down as 33% seeking less screen time, 27% wanting more nature exposure, and 18% craving stronger community connections, according to the survey data.
The Sources: We Buy Houses In Denver survey.
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Before You Dismiss This Article…
We live in a time when information feels overwhelming, but here’s what hasn’t changed: facts exist whether they comfort us or not.
When A&W launched their third-pound burger to compete with McDonald’s Quarter Pounder in the 1980s, it failed spectacularly. Not because it tasted worse, but because customers thought 1/3 was smaller than 1/4. If basic math can trip us up, imagine how easily we can misread complex news.
The press isn’t against you when it reports something you don’t want to hear. Reporters are thermometers, not the fever itself. They’re telling you what verified sources are saying, not taking sides. Good reporting should challenge you — that’s literally the job.
Next time a story makes you angry, pause. Ask yourself: What evidence backs this up? Am I reacting with my brain or my gut? What would actually change my mind? And most importantly, am I assuming bias just because the story doesn’t match what I hoped to hear.
Smart readers choose verified information over their own comfort zone.
B.T. Clark
B.T. Clark is an award-winning journalist and the Publisher of The Georgia Sun. He has 25 years of experience in journalism and served as Managing Editor of Neighbor Newspapers in metro Atlanta for 15 years and Digital Director at Times-Journal Inc. for 8 years. His work has appeared in several newspapers throughout the state including Neighbor Newspapers, The Cherokee Tribune and The Marietta Daily Journal. He is a Georgia native and a fifth-generation Georgian.
