What age would you let your child do this?

[londongirl12]

Outdoor shopping centre with restaurants outside. There’s a play area right outside next to the restaurant. What age would you let your child out to the play area on their own? No roads around.

Depends. Is it busy and not possible to have sight of them at all times?

5 or 6

Is the entire playground visible from the restaurant? If yes I'd say 10+

if visible 10 plus, if not 13 plus but also depends if it’s empty or with other known children

The restaurant is outside too? And the playground is right next to it, fully visible? Maybe about age 5.

If you can see it - 4 or 5

@BethDuttonYeHaw Bloody hell! 5 or 6 is extremely young for that 😳
I agree with others - entirely depends how viable it is etc. Minimum 10+ provided it’s in full view of the restaurant and you can have eyes on them the whole time.

Can you see the playground from your table? If so, 5 or 6.

11 is high school age. Kids generally start walking to and from primary alone age 10 in preparation for going to high school around here so I feel, on a play area where I could see them, age 8 + is fine. If they couldn’t be seen at all times then 10+.
It obviously depends on your area though tbh.

Can you see them?

If you can’t I’d now probably consider my two at 10 and 8 but they get on well, would stay together and I’d check a lot.

You'd let an under 4 year old be in a playground on their own?

You wouldn’t let your child be in a playground without parental supervision until age 13? Presuming no additional needs, that seems wildly over-protective…

No one has said “under 4”. Where did you get that from?

Depends on whether I could see them the whole time, on whether the play area was enclosed and what equipment was there. If it's a similar scenario to soft play where they can't get out, they can't come to any harm on the equipment and you can see them most if not all of the time then yes, 5 or 6.

If it was a park that was separate from the restaurant, they could theoretically leave the park and go anywhere and I couldn't see them then I'd say more like 9 or 10.

I’m not sure I’m imagining the right thing with the age range going up to 13 but a playground right next to where I was eating and where I could see him I’d say around 7/8 depending how sensible.

It depends on the layout a bit I suppose, younger if there’s no way out of the playground apart from past where you’re sitting, older if they could easily get out onto a carpark or road from the playground.

You would wait until they get into high school?

We need a diagram

I live in Scotland where we let our kids go out to play. So not extremely young here. Completely normal.

at 10 I doubt many kids would want to play in a play area outside a shopping centre. They are usually design med for younger kids.

If you can see them - what’s the problem

10+? Aren't your children walking themselves to school at that point? Surely they can negotiate being out of sight in a playground?

Lots of playgrounds are boring for 8+ year olds unless they are taking pre-teens into consideration when designing it.

IF the child is in general responsible, we already had a looser experience at home then I would say 7-8.

What? You wouldn’t let your 12 year old child go 1 minute walk away to play on a children’s park??? Unless you could see them.
All of the secondary age children I know travel on buses and bikes independently every day. They go shopping and to clubs without a parent. Do you really mean that you don’t allow your teenage child out of your sight at any time??

I can't imagine any self-respecting 13 year-old wanting to go to the playground. They'd roll their eyes at you witheringly and go back to scrolling.

If you can see them at all times, about 5. If not, about 8.