To think a 7/8 year old should not be alone with a 3/4 year old in a park, does not matter what country you live in.

[goodiegoodieyumyum]

Just been to our local park there was a little girl about 7 or eight with a 3 or 4 year old without any parents to be seen.

Now I live in the Netherlands so I know that parents allow there children more freedom than other places, but the park has really steep concrete stairs with no hand rail and there were older children running around her who twice tried to barrel into me and my one year old ds.

I was the only adult there so what would the 7 year old do if either of them hurt themselves. I suppose she may have a mobile phone but last year the slide collapsed and the air ambulance was called so I just can't understand why a parent would allow this.

There was a less than 5 year old playing with a huge block of polystyrene in the carpark near me the other day. I'm also not in the UK. My gast was flabbered.

DH was in our local park recently when an 8 yr old, who was there with his 4-5 yr old brother fell on the skate ramp (they'd cycled over, and weren't supposed to be in that bit apparently) and knocked himself out. DH called an ambulance and stayed with them, but the little one wasn't able to tell him a phone number for their parents, so it wasn't till 30 minutes later that a police officer turned up and was able to take him to get their mum - the older child was still not able to speak coherently.

So I'd def not be in favour of kids going to the park unsupervised

Was is Sarphati Park?

If the slide collapsed I'm not sure if I would let my children play there at all.

But if the playground is now safe, I don't have a problem with this, especially if the children's family live very close by.

I won't be letting my dd go to the park or even play in the street without supervision till she is a lot older she has no sense. The stairs at the park really scare me, I don't understand how they were allowed to build them.

Hm in Switzerland 5-year olds are expected to walk to school by themselves. The school will send you a letter asking you not to drive them and telling you how important it is for children to have independence and time on their own. I would guess sometimes the children would also walk through the parks and down some steep stairs. So no I would not find what you describe so outrageous.

No Oly not Sarphati Park, the slide was fixed, but as I say the very steep stairs that little toddlers love to walk up really concern me, there is no hand rail and it would not take much to fall and hurt yourself.

Lady, how close do you consider close, it is 2 minutes walk from my house, but unless some one else there knows you and knows where you live what do you do especially if there is no adult around, even if the other child has a mobile phone what if they are the one that hurts themselves and the smaller child can't cope.

yabu

Hazlenutt it just shows how cultures are different. The UK is extremely protective of children.

In Belgium many children walk or cycle alone to school from the age of about 8. And yes, I would help them if they had an accident, in the same way I have helped an adult who fell off her bike.

If the park is surrounded by houses and not in the middle of nowhere I don't see a problem.

Lady - it is, I remember a thread here where everybody was outraged and called the other parents total nutcases due to their totally unreasonable behaviour. The crime - OPs DC went to see a friend and parents left them home alone for a short while. DC and friend were 9. This happened in Norway though, where this would be totally normal and it would not even occur to the local parents to consider if two 9-year olds for some reason could not be left without supervision.

I allow my 6&7 year old to play unsupervised in our park. Its certainly within the realms of possibility that in a couple of years when youngest is 3/4 i would allow them to take her along.

Whilst I think it is important to consider potential hazards you can't or at least shouldn't make decisions based on worse case scenario. I could take one of my DC to the park and faint and knock myself unconscious.

Hmm, I get what you are saying, but equally an adult in charge of a small child could have a freak accident and the small child might not be able to "cope".
I could trip and fall down some steps or something when I am out with my young child. Doesn't mean I should never take them out.

Presumably if the parents didn't want the children climbing the steps they would have said so and the children wouldn't do it - unless they are deliberately disobeying instructions (in which case I would say that the older child isn't responsible enough.) But I would say that some 8 year olds are able to be responsible, depends on the child - and they may be older in any case and just look younger than they are.

I'm in Sweden and I often see the little girl (6) from next door and her brother (2) hand in hand trotting off to their grandparents who live else where in the village.

But then it's still the norm here to leave babies in prams outside shops and cafes.

Hazlenutt how far are the children expected to walk, I cannot imagine my dd in 8 weeks time being able to walk herself home from school, if she got home at all it would be about 2 hours later. What takes me 15 minutes takes her at least 20 sometimes 45, on her own if she could find her way and not walk into a moving car I would estimate at least an hour that's of course if she didn't stop at the park on the way home or stop and walk on peoples walls or play with leaves. I certainly will not be moving to Switzerland soon.

Obviously children who live in Switzerland are bought up to expect that they have to do that at the age of 5 and that must make a big difference.

Goode not sure if there are any set limits. Usually children go to primary schools quite close to home though, so we're certainly not talking hours.

april jones

Who was very sadly taken by someone close to the family, and not by a random stranger in a park.

where I live there was a few families where the kids brought themselves up where the eldest would be surrounded by wee ones usually from about 8, roaming the streets and crossing roads with hoards of kids and a buggy
, but i guess the park is maybe near the home of these kids and if all the children were out playing then it is the norm (tactful)

One side of the park opens to a very busy one way road, once I had to sprint to stop my friends dd 4 from running straight onto the road and into a car, they were leaving and the little girl just didn't seem to realise the road was there, her mother was busy with her other children and too far away to stop her, I hardly ever play in that part of the park.

LadyMargolotta-who said anything about random strangers?

I have children that age and live in the UK. I don't let my eldest go to the park unsupervised yet so the likelihood of me letting him look after his younger brother there is absolutely zero. I don't know if mine are just very immature when it comes to this kind of thing, but IMO they are simply too young.

My eldest has one or two friends from his class who go to the park alone and wonder around the village alone and I do get my judgy pants in a knot about it. The other 20 odd parents of children in his class don't let their children do it yet.

When my mum was 8 she used to take her 2 year old brother to the local park. When she wanted a turn on the swings she would tie his reins to the railings!

I do think that in the UK we try to make children too grown up too quickly in certain ways and yet baby them in others.

I am not really an advocate of 'playing out' in the streets but I do think that most children from about 7 could be trusted to walk to a shop a couple of minutes away for a pint of milk etc.

That said, I probably wouldn't send 2 such young children to the parks near me on their own, but that's only because the parks always seem to have gangs of teenagers rampaging around and not letting the little ones on the equipment.

I should add that we don't live in the UK and live in a real "community". Most adults in the park will know both me and where I live and also the children.