Cul de sacs are not playgrounds....

[Bestb411pm]

Last bloody forty minutes spent listening to kids bounce a sodding basketball right in the middle of the road. Maybe they're going for some sort of world record?

I've gone from been mildly annoyed to hoping the bloody thing goes through their car window and not mine. I can see why the parents don't want them banging outside their window if they keep them in the back garden, but what are they thinking letting them out to play with a sodding ball in the middle of the road?

AIBU? Really?

He doesn't look the sort that you would want to speak to Tea. He looks like Mr Bean.

Um, we live in a cul-de-sac so I guess I'm in the noisy brat brigade. So YABU. I love that my kids can play out with all their friends. (But I'm sure my childless neighbours are not so keen.)

There are some older neighbours that say they like to hear the children out playing, some people don't mind.

yes our neighbours dont mind, tho there is one man who told the boys off once and said they should go the park, the sad thing is he has a son the same age (not with him all the time as he is not the resident parent?) and he wont let his son out to play, he is the same age as my ds3 and when he is at his dads i often see him looking forlornly out the window at all the children playing out :(

sponge balls are good except when they get wet! then they soak up all the water and get really heavy etc!

AIBU Cul de sacs are for kids to play on not car parks

Well like I said, as long as you, YABUers, don't get in a piss when all around aren't utterly silent when you're trying to put your kinder to bed.

That is all.

Cul-de-sacs are no more playgrounds than they are car parks, but they're likely to be used as both now. People have mentioned risks to their cars, and that whole aspect of the discussion is predicated on the assumption that it's certainly reasonable for cars to be parked there, while it's debated whether it's reasonable for children to play there. Both uses are reasonable, but I think the automatic, unquestioned priority accorded to cars stinks.

"We've put our cars in this public space and now they're at risk of minor damage from people who want to use the space for other things!"

Of course children playing out impinge on the reasonable use of the space by cars, and parents should see that they play considerately as well as sensibly, and make them aware of the tolerance extended to them. Cars, meanwhile, whether moving or parked, impinge on the reasonable use of the space for play and other things, and their owners ought to be aware that they're imposing on others, and not just imposed upon by others.

we put our car on the driveway or dp often parks it out the way round the corner when all the kids are playing out. i imagine lots of the cars that are parked up on the pavement etc in cul de sacs and on the street are parked illegally, many block the pavement for a start?

what rights do people legally have over parking their cars on streets etc?

adn re noise at night, i am not too fussed by noise at night, as long as its not past say 11pm etc, we have had bbqs in the evening etc and so have some of our neighbours, next door have teens so there is noise from them at times, but nothing annoying.

legally tho there are requirements for noise to be kept to a minimum at night time, is between the hours of 11pm-6am? i cant remember there are no such laws for during the day? i tell my kids not to scream and shout etc, but as i said ds4 has a loud laugh, he is just 4yr old there is not much i can do about that!

I agree with you helen

But having just done a speed safety training day (I'm not a regular speeder honest !) I'm just thinking that legally anyone could drive at 30 mph in our cul-de-sac - which would obviously be crazy (it's really short) especially if any kids were around playing.

Just wondering if cul-de-sacs need a lower official speed limit than 30 ?
Because there are always some idiots who can't apply common sense

I dont mind the space being used to play on where the play is reasonable and there is supervision. My real issue comes from the small group of teenage boys using the space to kick a football up and down the road:

• the risk to cars parked legitimately on owners' drives
• the damage done to front gardens as they barged across searching for lost balls or contesting for the ball
• the assumption that they were entitled to climb into people's back gardens to retrieve lost footballs

Thankfully the particular group have now discovered girls and all now smoke too much to be interested in kicking a ballaround (scarily they are only around 17!)

juggling the road our cul de sac comes off has a 20 mile per hour limit, i think that is because there is a school nearby (tho the school isnt on that road) and i have to say people turning into our cul de sac go much slower than that, its quite a tight turn in and obviously they have to be going at 20 miles an hr or less on the other road that they are turning off from.

you can buy children playing signs etc to put up as well i think or you could ask the council, i am not sure if there is a different speed limit for cul de sacs, resedential areas are generally 30 arent they, tho more and more are becoming 20, around where i live anyway :)

Problem is too that officially the cars have right of way as it's a road - I think we do all have to do our best to make sure children know this such as up-thread the DCs who'd listen out for cars and get out of the road super quick when they heard one.

Goes without saying I hope that the car drivers should be a lot more careful too

Juggling I think that the speed limit needs to be far lower than 30. My DD1 was hit by a car in our Cul-de-Sac at no more than 20 and still came off the loser.

Our little road fortunately has a narrow entrance too which slows cars down quite a bit, plus they have to be slowing down really as there's only about 16 houses in the road so very short. But I like the idea of getting the council to put up a "children playing" sign - every little helps

I'm so sorry Gnome

yep ours is quite a tight turning so cars have to slow down and there are signs around saying children playing actually, one of the local schools held a competition and the kids designed some and they are attached to the 20mile speed limit signs, but you can just buy your own, or yes ask the council about them.

my children arent allowed near the bit where cars turn in, there is a lampost that they are allowed up to, which gives cars time to slow down and the kids can see and get out the way etc, they are really good actually and all get out the way, but its not that often that a car comes in tbh.

child vs car and child will always loose, we just have to teach them to be safe and keep an eye on them, i cant remember what the statistics are but there was that speed campaign on tv about speeds of car adn how if they slowed down a certain amount more then children would be safer etc, 'kill your speed, not a child' i think it was called?

is your dd alright now gnome ?

I'm sorry if this thread is difficult for anyone

But hopefully it is raising awareness which could do some good x

Oh yes DD is fine. It was a few years ago, she got away with an injured knee and a broken foot. She had to hobble round on crutches for a few weeks to remind her how daft she had been to step in front of a car without looking.

What I am trying to remind people is that it is all very well saying that cul-de-sacs make grand play spaces but if there are cars added to the mix it is the squidgy organic thing which will come of worse every time.

I can still remember the thud and my daughter sobbing in pain. It happened in an instant.

Wow. Even the 80-something mildly crotchety old man that lives next door and doesn't like most noises isn't bothered with children playing noise at all. Actually, I don't like a whole lot of noise, either, but I find the idea of calling children having fun "noisy brats" to be like something a bitter old person would do. You'd hate it here, OP. Pretty much every house on our street and the other streets around that has children has basketball hoops outside. In fact, there are 6 children outside my house right now that are using ours, and none of them are ours. (I'm 8 hours behind you)

Ours was. I played endless hours of tennis on our road, chased round on bikes and generally enjoyed my self.
We drove the one lady with out DCs mad.

Yanbu, it's not the playing out it's the game they are playing.
I was brought up in a cul de sac and we had neighbours who, on deciding to sell their house, decided that my brother and his friends playing football on the field which backed onto their house would be offputting to buyers. So to stop them playing there they would send their own kids onto the road in front of our house with a basketball and pogo stick to try and irritate us into calling my bro indoors! it didn't work, although it was incredibly annoying. Was v funny the day we returned from a walk and they had been out for 2hrs not realising we weren't in! Their faces.....

YABU

I live in very non picturesque East London but am lucky enough to live round a green. My close I arranged in a circle with all the house facing with the parking on the side away from the houses ( around the edge of the green)
Kids play all day until dark in the summer.
It can be annoying and everyone has to put up with footballs bashing cars and bouncing off the double glazing.
But the advantages faaaaaaaar outweigh the disadvantages.
The more kids, the more families, the fewer dodgy drinkers/loafers hanging about and the friendlier the place is generally.
The ice cream van parking in ohs disabled spot and running that fecking generator for 20 mins.....that I could do time for