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.

Scotland west coast. Housing estate with around 1500 houses, no through road. Multiple small play parks.

Kids play out local to their house around ages 6-7. Ages 7-9 they are usually playing out with friends anywhere on the estate.

Essex uk yes many kids still do

I'm in eastern Canada.

Not where I am now in the same way, as it is very rural, although my son bikes a km to his friend's place on a regular basis.

But until fairly recently we lived in a city and the kids played out there. It is a working class/lower end of the middle class kind of neighbourhood. One very busy road with buses and such and then less busy roads surrounding it - kids were mainly only allowed on the side roads until they were reliable. Then they could walk or bike a little further afield, say to the pond. My son was 10 when he was allowed to bike to the supermarket, the strip mall withe the comic book shop, etc.

My general sense from my friends and family is that as you get into upper middle class areas kids played out less.

I would also say that playing out, after declining for about two decades, seems to have increased again somewhat over the last decade.

As a child in a the suburbs of a small city, we used to play out as there was a green outside our house. It was on a main road (only 30mph), but everyone was careful playing ball games and the balls rarely, if ever made it into the road. All greens in that city have 'no ball games' signs now. The roads are much busier though.

For my own children, in our first house we lived on a tree lined avenue. Not everyone had a driveway, but they all had two cars! It was a side road and cars didn't travel at more than 20mph because of traffic calming measures, but there were no green spaces and because of all the parked cars, rubbish visibility. Luckily all of the houses had decent sized back gardens. We often had 8-10 children happily playing in the garden!

Where we are now, it's only green spaces (farmers fields mainly!). There are no pavements to walk to friends houses. We arrange playdates, or ride bikes in the garden (slightly larger garden than before), or drive them to one of the parks in the city...

Yes, very much so. I live in a golf estate in South Africa. Theres a speed limit and generally is very quiet and family-orientated. The kids play in the park/play areas and theres also a clubhouse with restaurant where gym, yoga and art lessons are held, and the kids walk, cycle, skateboard, walk dogs etc freely. Its a lovely community. We are lucky to have security in the estate so its safe and people are out walking, jogging and cycling till fairly late.

I stay in a small village in west Scotland and my DS has played out since he was about 7 I think. Really safe village. There are a few roads through it but I think this has taught him road safety.

Children play out from age 8 or 9 with boundaries, extending pretty much to anywhere walkable (e.g. retail park a mile away) by age 11. They go round to each others houses and to the local park and go on cycle rides. They build dens in the woods (gloried clump of trees). and in the bushes in the park.

Small city.

My observation is that the lack of playing out unless you live in a very unsafe area, is mostly due to parents being overprotective (see also, letting your child walk to local shop/school etc).

I am originally from India and kids play in roads, in apartment spaces, and in the playgrounds/fields of gated communities. This may surprise some people!

Yes mine do, village in the Scottish Highlands

Yes, ours do. From about 5 completely independently or a bit younger they can go chap doors but parent is on the street or sits in the play park. We live in a new build estate in a Glasgow suburb so there's quite a big gang of them all at similar ages which is nice.

SW London. Our end of the street they do, it’s lovely. Other end has A24 at junction, so don’t see it there. Our road seems to be one of two or three in our little area that isn’t a rat run. Rain or shine there’s always at least half a dozen out there, calling for each other, hopscotch, pavement chalks, ball games. The older ones knock for each other (Y5-8 ish) and they head to the common together.

South Germany here and yes kids do play out. We have a play park and woods at the bottom of our street so the kids mainly go there though they have been known to play on the front. The kids also all walk to school together from 6/7.

We played out all the time as kids, football on the road, in and out of friends houses in the crescent. Sadly I never see any children playing in the same street I grew up in. Far more cars parked there and fast driving. Such a shame.

Not here everyone's kids are either too young or too old to be out playing and there aren't many. We haven't picked a great part of the estate though there's more dogs than kids 🙁 My sil though stays on a newer build estate and there is always lots of kids out playing. My little one gets jealous and loves playing there as so many kids her age.

yes. North Hampshire about 60 miles from you.

We have woods, fields, parks, Greenham Common and there are dcs everywhere at the weekend. Why wouldn't they?

They do here (market town in South Midlands).
Always a group playing football in the street or riding their bikes around. Took the dog out for a walk yesterday evening and the same group were around by the pond (surface water run-off so dry ATM) and it is a 10-minute walk from the houses.

East Yorkshire here, we live in a mid sized village and yes down the cul de sac we live on, kids play out, my own included but as they're only 5 myself or DH busy ourselves washing car/gardening, I won't ever leave them unsupervised.

Yes, gated community in the Cayman Islands. They play in the pools, skateboard etc, but are still in the complex which is about 3/4 mile all around.

Main road outside the complex is a fast road and people drive like shit here so they don't go outside the front gates.

So many!!! I am glad to see it still happens. DH and I have tried to move (the sale fell through), it was out of London and my hesitation was that if we were going to leave London, then I want the children to play out. We walked around this town a lot, and didn’t see a single child playing without an adult present.

Okay, off to start searching for a town like one of yours! It genuinely makes me sad that my children don’t have what I did.

No. I live in a Lancashire town. You only see children of about y6 upwards out alone. It’s all play dates or supervised play at the park

Yes, I live in East London on a fairly modern estate and the kids play out / call round each others houses. It's quite a close knit community though so people keep an eye out for each other. My family lives in the suburbs and no one plays out there.

SE and yes children still play out here.

Yes here. The kids are always out. Cul de sac in smallish village, SW England.

We've just moved back to London from the suburbs of New York. We were in a lovely quiet dead end road and the kids played out every day. We miss it so much! My kids are like lost souls now and jump excitedly whenever the doorbell goes, then remember it won't be a friend because they can't do that here.

Rural Ireland here. Yes they do and it's great. We live down a cul de sac lane and they are always playing out.
I don't even lock my car.

Worth moving here just for the freedom DS has. Almost worth being too far for a takeaway delivery!