the 90's were perfect. my kids will never be able to experience that nexus of optimism, freedom, and easy going lifestyle probably and that's a sad thing.
PP here. As a kid of the '90s who grew up in NW DC, I certainly biked, climbed trees, and played outdoors until dark on the weekends, roaming in and out of neighbors yards, but it was definitely not
all carefree and easygoing--if I admitted that I would be succumbing to nostalgia. I was loaded up on activities (which I enjoyed, for sure, but it really doesn't seem too different from kids these days) and in elementary school a typical week would be ballet, soccer, music lessons, and tae kwan do and some others I'm forgetting. I had plenty of structured camps in the summers. I had plenty of homework in elementary school. I remember being really upset with myself for being one of the last in the class to get down my timed multiplication tables, and kids were so competitive about academic performance even in elementary school. We were even competitive about who was in the advanced reading group or not. School was full of high achievers.
My parents were strict about screen time, the sexual and violent content of TV shows and movies I watched, amount of sugar that could be in my cereal, and whether I could walk past my immediate block to the park by myself in elementary school. I was in big trouble if I didn't wear a helmet when I biked or knee, elbow, and wrist guards while I rollerbladed. My parents was far from alone in this--some parents were laxer about it--but that kind of protective behavior was far from unique to her. I even went on a playdate to a friend's house where her mom banned Barbie due to its poor messages about body image and gender roles. This was ~1995. Certain things were definitely less crazy...for example on this board people seem to be afraid of hiring neighbor teenagers as babysitters, and I was definitely babysat by 12 and 13 year olds as a kid (and babysat at that age myself). I don't know if this is just a regional thing, a socioeconomic thing, or what. My parents were certainly less overbearing in some ways than the way my nieces are raised now, but it wasn't exactly easygoing all the time.