Do children still “play out” where you live? Where are you? (Anywhere in the world!)

[Holidaying7]

My children are reading a lot of (mostly American) fiction where the kids play out with their friends on the street. Babysitters Little Sister, Ivy and Bean, and others.

Whenever I read these books to them, I get a twinge of nostalgia as that was my childhood!

Do kids still play out where you are? By that I mean, they (with parental permission) independently go and knock on their friends’ doors and play there or on the street without adult supervision?

Interested in anywhere in the world you might live where this happens still!

I live in London, so obviously that doesn’t happen here. But my sibling who lives in a popular-with-families suburb doesn’t have it there either.

I'm in West Midlands and see a few children playing out on scooters, space hoppers, and footballs, in the cul des sac.

Yes, we're in a Yorkshire village and my eldest plays out. Some of the kids play in the street, him and his friends prefer to get blathered in mud in the beck.

Not many (big city), lots of traffic. My mates that live on the council estates have more kids playing out. Really like going there.

Yes. Children still play out here. (Shropshire). Our street is full of them after school - playing on bikes/scooters or just running around. They mostly seem to be allowed to go to the small playpark at the end of the next street too - without an adult. From around 9 or 10 they also walk to the shop too - either to fetch something for their parents (milk not fags!) or just to get snacks for themselves.

Yes, live on a big suburban housing estate in Ireland and loads of kids playing from tiny 4 and 5 year old to teens.

Yes. New build estate SW London.

Yes, I live in a small culdesac in north wales. Kids call for each other and play out on bikes and scooters

Yes in a modern estate in Yorkshire. Purposely moved here so that the kids could play out. I didn’t have it when I was young

Yep. We live in Spain. All the kids play out and about, and not just in the street outside.
Walk/cycle/scoot to the parks, shops, green spaces, friends houses, pools.
Pretty much always out playing.

Stockport as my name gives it away!
And yes they do on our street.

Yep, cal-de-sac in Leeds, mine are far too old but I love seeing the children from around the street playing out, mainly because we lived on a busy main road when mine were aged 7-17 so they never got the chance and I wish they had.

Yes, we live in a rural part of the SW. I think the main things are safety of routes to get to friends and also just having friends who live nearby. Before we lived to where we are now, we lived in a small hamlet of maybe 10 houses. There were no other children within about 2 miles! So all playdates had to be pre-arranged. Also, narrow rural lanes would have made it not very safe to walk to friends anyway.

Where we live now, there are 3 friends within easy/safe walking distance on footpaths. We have a WhatsApp group to work out between us where they might be, but I quite often don't see them for hours.

Yes. I'm in the south of England. We have around 20 playing out at every possible moment. They were screaming and yelling and shooting past on bikes and scooters during the most solemn part of the Queen's funeral. We live in a reasonably 'posh' area. My LOs prefer to stay inside as they are so noisy and dangerous on their bikes.

My experience of London is that the council estate have kids playing out on in the park or bits between the blocks of flats or houses. Whilst the posher folks enrol their kids in lots of activities and tutors so they don't really have time to play, when they do it's an arranged playdate and they tend to get driven there.

Sometimes there are some families in a cul de sac or very quiet road where they do play with each other, but so many roads are busy this isn't common.

I grew up rurally where the kids in the village played together, but more rural friends didn't play out because there wasn't anyone nearby! That was a playdate / parents drive. I can't see that having changed.

Yes they do on our very long cul-de-sac. Football, bikes, hide and seek, that kind of thing.

I'm in Finland. At the last house I lived in, on a quiet road with communal gardens in front of the terraces, and a playground across the road, the children played out constantly from a very young age. They were constantly in and out of my house, or playing in the playground, or running through everyone's back gardens (the bottom of the gardens were unfenced), or riding their bikes up and down the road.

Now I live in a different area, where there's no pavements and everyone lives in detached houses with big gardens so the children aren't playing out on the road, as there's nowhere to play there, but they do go out of the estate and bike along the bike/pedestrian path by the main road, or go over the main road to the playground in the estate over there, or go down to the lake to play (swim in summer) or they go to the forest (starts at the top of our road) to play.

Yes in our village lots of kids play out of varying ages.
We live on a road with only one pavement that can be a bit fast (supposed to be 30 but it's straight with fields on one side 🤔) so no playing in our street but they call round and go to the park, the nature reserve or hang out green by the river
Those that live on the quieter streets do play out on the street/ pavements

Yes, in Sydney, Australia.

There is a little tribe of six kids across 3 houses that play in and out of each other’s houss and also at the end of the cup de sac…. ages 4-8.

Small Danish village and yes they do, at least on our street.

I live in a quiet little town in Kent and kids regularly play out down our road, it's one of the reasons we picked it. Not loads and not all the time, but in the evening there are definitely kids out on their bikes or kicking a ball about. It's great but can be a bit annoying when I'm trying to put the baby to bed!

They do here, some as young as 4 play on the green and the surrounding streets

It’s a nightmare though. Squabble after squabble and a handful of kids who seem to thrive on confrontation

Yup. Mid Devon village.

Very common here. I'm in Ireland

Yes mine do. We face onto a green, cars can't drive up here. We live in a small village in Oxfordshire. We feel safe here.

I live in Spain. Children/teens/adults are always outside.