A Different Life--Good or Bad?

When I think about my childhood I have fond memories of playing outside all day long with all the neighborhood kids playing kick the can, no bears out tonight, steal the flag and all sorts of games until mom came out on the deck and yelled for us to come home.  Memories of tubing down the canal and getting out at the last second before we went into the Syphon! Rope swinging into the river and playing in the field where we were sure the "devil worshippers" lived. (Not really, we just had big imaginations)
Last Saturday Dayton was at a friends house "hanging out".  They swam, they played video games, they ate, tortured his friends sisters but then he told me about something else they did that made me look at Travis and think? WTH?  I started laughing out loud at the thought of it.

Remember when you were little and you would "prank" call the boy or girl from school that you thought was cute.  Or when you had sleepovers with your friends you would go TP a house and doorbell ditch all the neighbors.

Well Dayton was so excited to tell me all about his little rebellious act of gate calling?! --Seriously--

We live in what I consider a nice home in a gated community.  Outside of the gated community there are some REALLY Nice big homes that each have their own gate around their own home.  Dayton's friend lives in one of these homes.  So instead of the traditional doorbell ditch routine, what they do instead is go push the gate button and run away?!  OMGoshers? They are so rebellious.

My kids have a very different life than me or my husband had growing up.  No we aren't the Trump's or anything but I worry about their perception of the world.

For example:
According to Landon and Dayton we are the only parents that make their kids do chores! THE HORROR!
They also have to help earn money for the activities they choose to do.  Football for example costs around $400 per kid (ridiculous-but that's another story) so they get to help with all the fundraising and after selling, cookies, jewelry, asking for sponsors, selling sport cups, and doing extra jobs guess what? They have earned what we asked them to help with.  According to them most the other player's parents chose the "buy out" option.  Is it easy to go around with your kids selling all this crap? NO! Would it have been easier to maybe just write a check? Would that have been the best thing? Well, you know my answer to that by what we chose for them to do.

Reece, age 4,  is saving his money for a Wii (gasp!, No we don't have one) a unicorn, and a horse.  In that order.
 Dayton is also saving for the Wii.  So far they have around $140.  I don't remember when they started saving.
Landon recently got an I-Touch (I won't let him have a phone) that he saved for and bought with his own money.  After he got his, his friends mom went and bought one for his friend the next day (nice).  I told him he must have chose the wrong parents-he has a rough life.

As parents we work so hard to give our kids the things "we didn't have" when we were kids and yet I often find myself asking if I'm giving them anything at all by doing that.
I wonder if we would all be better off breaking out of these "gated" places, prisons, that we create and choose to live in and go back home by the "devil worshippers" where things were perfectly normal.