Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5

Original poster

To think that, actually, kids DO play out?

118 replies

BrittaPerry · 15/08/2012 09:19

I'm sick and tired of Facebook posts, newspaper columns etc bemoaning that kids somehow never play out.

Every street I have ever lived in, and m job takes me walking and cycling round quite a few too, has had kids playing out. From about the age of 5 or 6, they are out on scooters, bikes, balls, or just doing kiddy things.

The parents just pop their heads out every now and again, and each child has a personal limit - it is quite funny to see them suddenly stop running at a certain bollard :-)

We are in a northern 'new town', but I used to live in amore traditional mill town till three years ago and it was the same. I grew up (I am only 27, we're not talking wartime) on a main road- we just went out via the back gate and ginnel.

Do I live in a different dimension to everyone else, or is it (as I suspect) all down to people just liking to moan?

(oh, and they play conkers etc too...)

OP posts:

NCForNow · 15/08/2012 09:40

I am in Cheshire and in my area kids don't play out. I let mine...they're the only ones!

D0oinMeCleanin · 15/08/2012 09:40

No, no Britta. Don't encourage them to come up here. Then our house prices will become ridiculously high and we won't be able to get a take out for four for less than £30

Yorkpud · 15/08/2012 09:41

It's not normal where I live, but then we are near a busy road so I don't think it would be a great idea. Plus no other kids play out so my children might as well play in the garden where I know they are safe. I take mine out to the park a lot and they usually play with anyone they find there. I also have to arrange a lot of things to do with other children. Would be a lot easier for me if they could just play out.

solidgoldbrass · 15/08/2012 09:41

I have just started letting DS play out these hols, he's 7. We live in South London but on a quiet side street, and he can go up and down the road on his scooter, either to play with his friend who lives at the end of the road, or to belt up and down by the tram stop, watching the trams.

Though he has said that one or two adults have told him he shouldn't be out by himself .

5madthings · 15/08/2012 09:46

well good for you for letting SGB, god people need to learn not to stick their noses in. i let mine play out as do most of the other families in our cul-de sac, but there is one boy who is not allowed out, and his dad has often told my children they should be in the garden. his son often sits and looks longlingly out the window when the children are playing out :(

Original poster

BrittaPerry · 15/08/2012 09:46

I saw a flat near me, for sale for £15,000. Needed work, and in a rough area, but kids were still playing out...

But keep it quiet

OP posts:

TheCrackFox · 15/08/2012 09:53

All the kids play out here, it is like the 1950's. (Edinburgh)

Although it is very quiet today because all the Scottish kids have gone back to school.

usualsuspect · 15/08/2012 09:59

I was quite surprised to read on MN that some parents don't let their children play out, it's always been such a normal thing for kids to do wherever I've lived.

germyrabbit · 15/08/2012 09:59

really depends on each area so hard to generalise! i have been in parks swarming with (unaccompanied) under 5s and other areas where there isn't a child it sight!

It's true that they don't play out as much and alot of places to play are closing so all in all you can't judge nationally just on a small amount of areas.

germyrabbit · 15/08/2012 10:01

historially the middle classes tended to not let kids out the front and only their and others gardens

usualsuspect · 15/08/2012 10:01

Maybe it's because I've always lived in 'rough' areas then

porcamiseria · 15/08/2012 10:01

yanbu, and I live on London (where kids never ever leave huse allegedly)

Vondo · 15/08/2012 10:02

My kids play out (west lothian) - our kids are still off school for another week and DS1 (10) has been out playing football at the park with his friends for most of the holidays. His Xbox has hardly been touched - which is great.

If its not raining he goes out about 1030, come back for his lunch, goes back out until dinner time, comes back to be fed then negotiates whether he can get out again after dinner - I think its great for them!

Although DS3 (3) doesn't understand that he's only allowed to play in the garden because he's too little to go and "play football with the big boys!!"

BeatriceBean · 15/08/2012 10:07

Only the rougher kids play out here. Not sure I'd be happy my daughter playing out . Surprised so many on here are!

Noqontrol · 15/08/2012 10:08

Mine don't play out, but we're on a busy bus route. Theres no kids of dc's age on this stretch anyway.

LadyofWinterfell · 15/08/2012 10:09

I live on the road where i grew up, and this summer has been just like when i was little. There's about a dozen children playing out and enjoying the holidays! :o They are 6y upwards.

usualsuspect · 15/08/2012 10:11

lol @ rougher kids, Is that you Mrs Bouquet?

porcamiseria · 15/08/2012 10:11

I think there is a central/suburban issue, wherever you live

I live in a working class suburb, but its very green, with speed bumps and lots of green spaces

of courseif you live on a busy A road, wherever, kids cant play out

Lancelottie · 15/08/2012 10:11

Nothing to add except a smile at the word 'ginnel', which DH (soft southern bloke) doesn't think IS a word.

akaemmafrost · 15/08/2012 10:13

Its nothing to do with being "middle class" or not "letting" kids play out and saying "good for you" to SGB like she is bucking the norm of snotty Londoners and letting her child play out. I am sure she has, like every parent weighed up the risks, knows her area and made an informed decision. Just like I have.

Its very busy where I live, there is no sense of community, kids don't live in every house or only a few doors away, they are spaced out over a much larger area. My ds's nearest mate is about four or five streets away crossing two massively busy many roads to get there. In your streets you probably don't have loads and loads of passers by. I can count fifty in five minutes if I look out of my window. Its a feeling of being constantly on the move and it doesn't feel safe putting a 9 year old and a 5 year old out there into that environment.

I am sure people in London DO let their kids play out but no-one we know does because it doesn't feel right where we are.

Ephiny · 15/08/2012 10:40

Kids play out all the time in our street (East london) and on the nearby estate. Definitely not a posh area though.

geegee888 · 15/08/2012 10:44

Many children do play out, but my DNs certainly don't. I've never seen anything like it. They literally don't know how to do outdoor play and are at a total loss, and have correspondingly poor motor and coordination skills. Their parents never go outdoors either (other than the journey from house to car, and even that is deferred if its raining), so I guess thats where they got it from.

NotEmpressOf7AnythingsNo · 15/08/2012 11:00

We're in Islington, kids playing out is definitely normal in our bit.

WorraLiberty · 15/08/2012 11:10

I was quite surprised to read on MN that some parents don't let their children play out, it's always been such a normal thing for kids to do wherever I've lived

Me too and I live in London...there are always kids playing out here.

I don't understand people who say, "But there's far more traffic now than years ago".

Yes that's true but cars in the 70's could kill too...and it only takes 1 car to kill a child so I don't understand that attitude

From reading MN, I get the impression it's a mixture of mind warping by the media and a bit of an attitude that kids are somehow 'feral' if allowed to play in their street that stops people allowing their kids out.

WorraLiberty · 15/08/2012 11:10

That should say 'that stops some people allowing their kids to play out'

Flip

1 2 3 4 5

Swipe left for the next trending thread