Middle class kids don't play out as much as working class children

Oh, and even though I live on a council estate in an area that mn especially would call deprived all ds' friends parents work, as do I

I work for the CS so my hours, even office hours are flexible and i know quite a few other parents who wfm , there's a couple of mums who work as TAs or dinner ladies as well so they are around after school , also parents who work in shops in the local retail park and do school hours

Theres also a couple of dads I know that are flexible and wfh so not much wrap around care needed for a lot of us

Our schools wrap around care is free, well we pay for breakfast if they want it. Hours are only 7.45 until 4.30 though

Yeah, we aren't earning the mn 100k a year, we live in a cheap area but the majority of us do work! . Lots of us choose not to put our dc in daily activities or after school clubs because we can work around it or , like me don't feel it would benefit our dc to be going to different clubs every night. It's nothing to do with not being able to afford it

Give me council estates any day, my siblings and I much preferred being able to breathe, roam and manage our own

It isn't really about preference, it was just your normal. If you had been born to a family that didn't play out that would have been your normal instead and you wouldn't have thought anything about it.

I loved playing out as a child, I'm glad I now live somewhere that children go out to play , my eldest 2 didn't in primary due to the area we lived in at the time.

I have really fond memories of the summer before I went up to secondary school especially, all of us on the estate playing out together

I never grew up playing 'out' and don't know anyone who did. We always were in our friends gardens or homes or at home. I wouldn't want my children playing out either. I know my dc friends and their parents well and prefer it that way, rather than random children who I don't even know. Even worse, random kids turning up at my door. Even so aren't most kids at clubs, activities, some aftercare setting? My dc is at school, a club or comes home and so does his friends.

Agree - we recently moved as our last house, was opposite a row of council houses and the noise from all the kids was unbearable. We've had to downsize but it was worth it for the peace.

Mines either at after school club, dance, gymnastics, swimming or Brownies. Same for her friends who do even more clubs.

Our kids never played ‘out’. If they had friends over, they played in the garden.

I am working class and live in a council estate where all the kids play out, mine included. I’d say that this is correct, my dc do have activities after school most days but this isn’t the norm for kids here, and it’s actually quite difficult to convince my kids that they’d rather go to swimming lessons etc after school than play out with their friends which they would much rather be doing, it leads to endless complaining from my dc! It’s not so bad in the winter when all the kids are inside and they have nothing else so do.

It's different having a playdate in your garden with whoever your parents have invited round to playing in a public space (green/park/playground) where there is a constant stream of children coming and going.

Well long before Madeleine McCann, back in the 70s/80s, my mum would say, "Times have changed, since I was young, it's not safe for children any more."

Of course there have always been nutters who attack children (Fanny Adams is a well known victim from the1860s, and the Moors Murders in the 1960s), though I have no idea whether this is getting worse or not. Traffic is worse, obviously. And it's not encouraging when you see troublesome kids roaming round on their own - kicking off at security staff in the supermarket, doing handstands in the middle of the road, fighting and swearing in the park, or whatever. So you think, "Well I don't want my kids doing that, or associating with those kids, or being bullied by those kids." And you keep them at home.

Mine play out all the time.
How old are your kids op?

Yep you’re right all my neighbours kids don’t leave the house by foot at all. They only leave in a car with a parent. It’s weird. (This is teenage kids too not just the younger ones). I think people are very lazy now and just drive everywhere or stare at phones.

How dissimilar is it though to a MC kid playing in a large garden with whoever happened to come round? My childhood was spent mostly outside making mud pies, building dens and riding bikes. Parents weren't supervising. Big garden.

Yes, who we played with was controlled.

My DD now has plenty of unstructured playtime and very limited screens. But she doesn't play out.

Ds used to play out when we first moved to our area, but he was bullied by the wc children so we kept him indoors and just did activities instead. Ds is grown up now so not a concern anymore.

The current lot of children seem to be a bit more pleasant than the first ones.

Because unstructured play has to be supervised by someone in contemporary society. We are the generation that grew up in the wake of Madeleine McCann and other high profile abductions. The parents are always blamed. It's been drummed into us not to let children go unsupervised.

So if I work and my DH works, then I can go option a) and let my DC wander about the streets until I'm finished for the day, or I can go b) and let them attend a club where they socialise and pick up a skill at the same time. We choose b)

It would be lovely if my DH could be a SAHD and we could let the DC have lashings of rice pudding and ginger beer as they galivant around the local area with their friends and Timmy the dog, but sadly he (DH, not Timmy) has to work.

Yes and I clearly said my kids do play outside with neighbours kids? But you said it was different and I can't see how it is different

I don’t let Ds out alone. He’s took young imo, even though other children of similar age have been out for ages alone.
Im constantly seeing them almost run over from cars coming out driveways when I take Ds out on his bike! Terrifies me.

As children we were left to run wild. We basically just caused chaos, played knock down ginger and chicken on the main road. I don’t really want Ds to play like that.

He goes outside on bike/ scooter/ walks but with dh or I, or we arrange to meet with friends for bike ride or at parks. Or on our garden.

😁. Maybe paying £80 a day or £15 for a "stay and pay" session makes it feel more legitimate.

Middle class parents arrange structured unstructured play. At "children's woods" or "forest schools" or the fashion for "mud kitchens" at schools and nurseries.

DDs school has "outdoor learning" which consists of unstructured running about with optional nature study type activities.
Only, cos it rains a lot in Glasgow, they quite often have "indoor outdoor learning". (They really call it that!) In DDs words: "the teacher just brings some sticks and rocks into the classroom"

This. I honestly can't understand why so many well-off, involved parents who invest heavily in their children in many other ways and provide them with so many other opportunities seemingly have a blind spot when it comes to this. It's as if because it doesn't cost anything and isn't scheduled and organised, it's not important and doesn't need to be prioritised.

I grew up in a leafy residential area in the Midlands in the 80's, a lot of the parents were doctors, teachers, bank/office managers, business owners etc and a lot of the kids would play out a lot. Where I live now there's a bit of a split, it's definitely rare on my estate to see kids below the age of 11 out and about. I think it's a shame really, but there is a perception that it is more dangerous 'out there' these days, which I don't think is true.

I absolutely did. Council estate, Essex, born 1975. It was absolutely taken as read that you would play out unsupervised from a very young age. I remember being told to take my sister out in her buggy when me and my other sister were going playing - she is six years younger than me so if she was still in a buggy I must have been eight or nine, other sister six or seven. And would have been well used at that point to going out alone. There were two playgrounds each about five minutes walk away, but we also used to go to "the woods" and "the little stream". Parents would not have known where we were.

This was completely standard, my parents were not neglectful in any way. My mum would point out that we often went out with a friend who was two years older (so ten or 11!) but we didn't always.