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

Really? I thought all WC DC were stuck indoors eating junk and watching enormous TVs, while MC kids ran through the woods, making dens and being 'so feral its embarrassing'?
Seriously, is there nothing on here that doesn't get turned into a class stereotype? Children play out largely if they are in spaces where its safe to do so and there are other children to play with. So estates of all types from the 5 bed new builds to the social housing will typically be teeming. High traffic areas or places where there are not many other families, less so.

I live sort of half way between a wc area and a mc one (I don’t usually use those terms though, I’m in Ireland so it’s a bit different) and there are very few children playing out unsupervised in either area. I notice it particularly in summer time.
Most people are working and the kids are with childminders/ in wraparound care.

I had a very middle class 70s/80s upbringing and, although we did quite a lot of organised activities, we played out a huge amount of the time, including most of the day in the holidays. Equally middle class DCs have never played out, although I would have been fine with it. There is way more traffic now and I think parents would be called negligent these days for leaving any pre-teens unsupervised.

We live on a private lane of just a few cottages now. The children inc DD play out but only in front of the cottages. It’s a teeny village, super quiet.
When they are about 9/10 they go further away in to the fields, but DD and next door aren’t old enough yet.

Working class kids barely play out any more. They've likely got all the same tech as middle class kids so theyve got the same temptation not to leave the house.

KIds only properly played out when it was more exciting to do so, on bikes, football, getting up to mischief in the woods. Parents were less precious than nowadays.

It really isnt a class issue.

I'd say we are a relatively middle class family...my ds used to walk round the corner to kick a ball about as there is a social housing estate around the corner and usually some kids hanging out. Our middle class neighbours kids don't play out.

Yes we live up the road from a council estate and I love walking my dog or driving past there. There’s also kids out playing football or on their bikes.

We were very middle class and we did. But we didn’t live in a city, we lived on a private development next to a golf course and next to a farm. Very little traffic and lots of open space.

If we have lived on a street we wouldn’t have I’m sure.

Given the fighting, swearing and antisocial behaviour (think egging a bus shelter) from the local (Y5-Y6) kids who are allowed to play out in going to hard disagree with you on it being ‘incredibly good’. Local opinion is that the children in question are ‘feral’.

I grew up on a WC estate and we were out playing all day. Get called in for tea, wolf it down, back out to play.
Its so incredibly good for children to have unsupervised free play with their peers when they’re old enough.

Yes this. I grew up on a council estate but I was the middle class kid. I wasn’t allowed to play out. And I didn’t expect to. That’s what the other kids did! (1980s)

I grew up in a middle class area and we were out morning to night. I'd say where I live mow is all.young(ish) professional families and the street never empties ! Depends on the area I think

Mine doesn't play out, she's either got activities or we are doing things together. The activities are the main reason though

Have you ever met a WC person in your life? 🙄

Middle class parents tend to work full time, so the kids are in wrap around care or activities. I made an effort to be at home for my DD after school, until I realised there were no other kids to play outside with because all the mums work. My DD actually asked to go to the child minder after school because there are other kids there to play with and none at home.

Working class mums are more likely to be at home and not work, or not work full time. I still see kids playing out in rough areas when I drive past, but not in posh areas.

You are correct.
children have more scheduled activities.

when playing outside, parental supervision is also expected at a higher age and a closer level. It means a parent has to be available if the children want to go outside and they can’t freely move from place to place.

Might just be that particular neighbourhood although MC probably have more activities after school and at the weekend. In my village most kids play out, regardless of their 'class'.

More structured activities, more room in the house/garden, more being taken out at the weekend for family bike rides/places with nice playgrounds etc.

When dd was a kid there were a few other girls of similar age in our cul-de-sac, so they did 'play out' a bit but more often would play in each others gardens, until they were old enough to troop off to the playground.

Ours did, all of the local children played on the beach which was our equivalent of playing in the street I suppose.

YANBU
middle class kids tend to do more structured classes which can be too expensive for some WC

In the past there would have been a lot less space in a working class house for playing too, eg sharing bedrooms

Me too! Those threads about the "freedom" everyone had in 80s childhoods don't reflect my experience at all.

We live in an area where the children play out. The children that do play out are always swearing, shouting, riding their bikes dangerously in and out of the road etc. I don’t let my dc play out. They are welcome to invite friends over. I don’t want them playing out unsupervised. I’m amazed at the age of some of the children allowed out on their own round here (nice town in South Norfolk) - some don’t look any older than 5ish. My son is 12 and goes to a specialist independent school (council funded, he has autism) so he doesn’t have a peer group with the kids where we live anyway (all his friends are spread across the county) so that helps but I really don’t like young children playing out unsupervised.

Possibly because middle class may more likely be dual earned families. Fewer parents to keep an eye on the kids out of the window so they go into wraparound care or structured activities.

We moved around a lot when I was a child, and my least favourite times were the ones we spent on modern, Privet Drive-style middle class housing estates. They spawn a very distinctive and stylised form of childhood - paddling pool in the back garden, ice pops in the freezer, bike riding in the cul de sac with a parent watching the whole time, occasional barbecues with the neighbours, children's friends curated by parents and undesirables from outside the estate weeded out. Horribly stultifying. Give me council estates any day, my siblings and I much preferred being able to breathe, roam and manage our own friendships.