Every summer, my dad would wake me up around 9 a.m., make me breakfast, and send me outside for the day. Once I left, he locked the doors from the inside, and I wasn’t allowed back until the streetlights came on, except to use the bathroom or grab a drink. He always said, “You’re not sitting around the house all day.”<\/p>\n
At the time, I believed it was simply his way of making sure I stayed active instead of spending the day indoors. My stepmom never questioned it either, assuming he was encouraging me to enjoy the outdoors like many parents did.<\/p>\n
Since most of the neighborhood kids were outside during the day, I never thought anything was unusual. We spent our summers riding bikes, playing games, and staying out until evening, so my dad’s rule seemed completely normal.<\/p>\n
Years later, I finally realized the real reason behind it. My dad wasn’t just encouraging outdoor play\u2014he wanted the house to himself so he could relax and watch hockey games in peace while I happily spent the day outside with my friends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Every summer, my dad would wake me up around 9 a.m., make me breakfast, and send me outside for the day. Once I left, he locked the… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27680,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n