Children playing out in the street

The thread is from 2017 so they're probably past the age of playing out. Check the dates before posting.

As the original post was seven years ago, I expect the kids that were playing out are now either off to uni, or are sat in their bedrooms playing online games.

If I’m honest, I agree with the neighbour who is clearly stressed out by this situation. For all you know, someone might be experiencing severe physical health issues and wants to enjoy their own home without kids screaming outside and riding scooters etc. so they can recover from illness or someone could have PTSD and is struggling with the noise so I would be more thoughtful and have more respect.

if you want your kids playing out then have it outside YOUR property, not other peoples and if that isn’t an option then play in YOUR garden, that way no one can moan!

Should have moved to the middle of no one if you want to be so ignorant and disrespectful to other people.

Why can't the children play in the garden or in a park? Can the parents take turns to supervise them in a park or playground in the evening?

I think you're being selfish. The neighbours are being disturbed by the noise yet you don't care. A group of children playing noisily right outside your house can be infuriating (we had this before we moved, I was studying for exams and wanted to cry some evenings! I'm all for kids playing, but using the street as a playground is unfair on other people!)

I expect the parents of the toddler are trying to get him to sleep. I would be livid if my 2 year old was repeatedly woken by noisy kids or ball games in the street.

Noise is very intrusive. Most people want peace and quiet in the evenings. They want to relax in their home without kids shrieking and shouting outside the windows, or riding bikes up and down the same bit of gravel, or worrying about balls bouncing off their cars.

I think you need to compromise- bring them in at 6pm. A couple of hours playing out after school then give the neighbours some peace!

Article 31 (Leisure, play and culture): Children have the right to relax and play, and to join in a wide
range of cultural, artistic and other recreational activities.

From UNICEF summary of the Convention of Rights of the Child

but also note

Article 15 (Freedom of association): Children have the right to meet together and to join groups and
organisations, as long as it does not stop other people from enjoying their rights. In exercising their rights,
children have the responsibility to respect the rights, freedoms and reputations of others.

Perhaps the little boy who mentioned human rights might be interested. He could be a budding human rights lawyer in the future

It depends on the children and how they are playing and how much noise they are making.

There's a group of children near my house who shout and scream until 9pm and spend their time doing lovely things such as: repeatedly kicking a ball at someone's fence until it broke, climbing trees in someone's garden so the trees had to be chopped down and running across the road in front of cars as a game.

I am a total Sheldon Cooper about noise but even I would suck this up - children playing in the street (just playing, not vandalising, drinking or intimidating others) is just part of life. They are not hurting anybody, breaking any laws or stopping anybody from doing anything.

YANBU.

That's just it, the "rights of the child" often gets mistaken for ,"I the child have more rights than you", too much self importance isn't always good for kids.

including the right to play

There is no human right to play in the street.

Lots of schools are "Rights Respecting Schools" these days and many/most children will learn about human rights and the convention on the rights of the child (including the right to play) at school.

You let your baby out into the road with a group of children? shock

Perhaps read that post again, Sparkling. Nothing for you to worry about.

Mine used to play out as toddlers and I didn't follow on their heels but kept an eye out and trusted the older children to let me know if anything wasn't right.

I'm all for kids playing out, bit perturbed by the "human rights" kid. Sign of the times i suppose, everyone thinks it's their "human right" to do anything. Kids learning it from parents.....No wonder a lot of kids run riot if that's what they think.

Go one step further and organise a street party

We have a huge problem with children playing where I live. Their parents just dump them on the street, they don't even watch the way you do. There are constantly bikes/scooters left all over the place. Small children run out onto the road in front of cars without warning. One child in particular has anger problems and yells every now and then. It's unsightly, it's a pain in the arse, it's quite dangerous-quite a lot of cars, bendy roads and lots of cars parked on the street and poor visibility-but what are you going to do? The parents a bit selfish/stupid for letting their children out like that (all the houses have gardens so children could easily play in each other's gardens) but you can't really force them to take better care of their children.

The child in question didn't say it to the adult - that's not the point really, and I wouldn't find my child saying that 'funny', I'd be embarrassed by their attitude.

Instead of thinking they have some special 'rights' because they are children, perhaps they should understand about compromise. 'One childhood' doesn't equate to special privileges, though obviously compromising works both ways.

As one of the DCs said it's my human right to play on the street it's my childhood.

No it isn't a 'human right*

I just thought it was funny

Righto.

YANBU

Everybody has the right to use their street, even children. As long as they're considerate.

And there's no need to be rude about a child for making one possibly tongue-in-cheek remark about their 'human rights'.

I'd much rather children running about & playing as children, getting exercise then the thought of them stuck on a tablet, not moving & getting enough exercise

Sparkled - yep, though he's a toddler not a baby. And very occasionally, for five minutes or so in our quiet cul-de-sac with me right there too. He runs around with them shouting and they love acting like grown up kids and looking after him. It's very cute and totally safe so no need to worry...

Oops I meant the parents until gone 11, typo!!!

In our street the kids 'play' out until 8-9pm every night - which generally seems to involve screaming, shouting and kicking balls at parked cars and people's doors and windows. After they get the kids in the parents then stand in the street screeching at each other until gone 12

It's bloody annoying, I want some peace and quiet when I've been at work all day, but apparently we're the anti social ones

People have no concept of how loud/annoying their kids are imo and other people have a right to some quiet time!

TBH we're moving house, and this is part of the reason why, it's really inconsiderate & self centered to make constant noise in the street

We live in a cul-de-sac in a very quiet area. All the rest of the estate is bungalows with retired people but this tiny cul-de-sac is 3 bed houses and it's teeming with kids all summer.

It's lovely.

And yes, all the little ones play out too, supervised by parents from the garden but it's very much a case of just letting them all run up and down, on scooters, bikes, playing with chalk on the pavement, blowing bubbles, pushing toy prams up and down.

The age ranges from 11 down to about 3. It's really nice that the older ones (including my DD who is 11) takes time to talk to the little ones, they are all learning about interacting with different ages and it's funny when the 3 year old shouts over our fence to me 'Pirate! Can DD come out to play!?'.

Where we used to live the old lady across the road was a miserable woman who would shout at DD and her friend just for standing on the pavement outside her house. Because they may damage the fence. They were just standing there. They were 9 years old ffs. We lived opposite but this woman expected both girls to go and play down the road away from her house. She was so precious over her fucking hedge and fence and yet my DD has never damaged a hedge or fence in her life.

I'm glad that this road (which also has some old residents) is more than happy for the kids to be out playing.

Playing out is fine, but I'd bring them in for tea about 6pm and stay in after that.