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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To let my kids play football in the road?

169 replies

sandyballs · 19/04/2013 23:09

It's a quiet road and they are 12 so not little. I've told them to keep the ball low and avoid parked cars and I've watched them and they do. They're also good at looking out for cars coming.

They told me tonight that a neighbour freaked out at them saying how dangerous it was and to get out the road. She has much younger kids. I'm just pleased weather is nicer, evenings are lighter and they're outside and not on some kind of screen. AIBU?

OP posts:
Suzietastic · 19/04/2013 23:15

If you have a back garden they should be playing here IMO. YABU

Suzietastic · 19/04/2013 23:15

*there

MissyMooandherBeaverofSteel · 19/04/2013 23:23

They should be playing football in the garden or park, a road with cars parked on it isn't the place for it. Its one of those situations where everything is fine, until its not then you have to pay for damage to a car or one of your kids end up injured.

Sparklingbrook · 19/04/2013 23:25

I think 12 is plenty old enough to go to the park TBH.

WhitesandsofLuskentyre · 19/04/2013 23:26

If they're 12, isn't there a park they can play in? The sound of a ball being played with in the street (not to mention the fact that children cannot play ball games quietly) can be intensely irritating to neighbours. My neighbours' children used to do it right outside my house when I lived in a cul-de-sac. I work from home and it used to drive me demented.

Original poster
sandyballs · 19/04/2013 23:57

There is a park very near that they go to but they sometimes prefer playing in the road. Not for hours, I don't see the problem. They aren't noisy.

OP posts:
squeakytoy · 20/04/2013 00:03

YABU.. its a road, not a playground. Tell them to go to the park.

If the neighbours have younger kids, who see the older ones playing in the road, what happens if the younger kids try and copy, but dont have the sense to not run out from behind a parked car..

CreatureRetorts · 20/04/2013 00:05

YABU

You don't live in the 1950s anymore. People speed etc.

Man alive.

IloveJudgeJudy · 20/04/2013 00:07

They definitely shouldn't be playing in the road. Never mind the moving cars, what about the parked ones? I wouldn't be very happy if my neighbour's DC banged my car with their football. They're old enough to go to the park on their own now.

SAHRum · 20/04/2013 00:07

12 year old boys get very caught up in the moment when playing football don't they though? it's only a matter of time before a window gets smashed, smaller child and/or pensioner gets a ball in the face/balls, old Mrs Taylor's prize winning dahlias get smashed to smithereens. We all wish it was 1976 but it isn't

CloudsAndTrees · 20/04/2013 00:13

YABU.

It's a road. Not a football pitch. Not a garden. Not a park.

Take some responsibility for your children, teach them some sense, and stop annoying your neighbours.

HollyBerryBush · 20/04/2013 06:54

So long as they use a sponge ball. Streets were made for playing in . Beats being up the park, surrounded by white lightening bottles and used condoms.

having a nostalgic whimsy moment

saintmerryweather · 20/04/2013 06:58

Streets werent made for playi.g in, parks were. your kids might not be noisy but there'd be one hell of a racket if they were to hit my car with tjeir ball

JumpingJackSprat · 20/04/2013 06:59

Send them to the park. its all fun and games until one of them gets hit.

mateinthree · 20/04/2013 07:13

It really depends how quiet the road is, and how many cars are parked on it. The road I grew up on was fine for playing football on, but where I live now isn't.

GoblinGranny · 20/04/2013 07:13

We have two groups here that play in the road. One lot I think of as the kamikaze squad, they have no sense of danger, run after the ball without looking, kick it across the road as you are driving, pedestrians get bumped into or hit by balls. One day someone is going to get properly hurt.

The others play in a cul-de-sac and cone off the entrance. If a car wants to come in, the children move the cones. It's by mutual agreement of the adults in the cul-de-sac.

OP, what you are permitting is the former situation. It's dangerous, inconsiderate and probably illegal.

Mrsrobertduvall · 20/04/2013 07:15

We live in a quiet culdesac and I wouldn't let ds play football in the road....what if ball went through a neighbour's window or damaged a park car?
He was sent to the park with his mates.
It wiuld really piss me off to have children playing football in the roac...that thud thud noise.

ThingummyBob · 20/04/2013 07:17

Meh. Where I live kids of all ages play out all the time. It's nice.

Yanbu.

Bowlersarm · 20/04/2013 07:19

YABU

It was one of the advantages we felt when we moved out of our street in London where some children did that. It really irritated is. They were continually noisy, shouting etc, and their ball definitely did hit the cars even though they denied it. It was very annoying.

HollyBerryBush · 20/04/2013 07:22

I love looking at old photos with children playing in the street and blitz ruins!

That's when we had a sense of community.

Sparklingbrook · 20/04/2013 07:26

Me too Holly.

The world has changed though. My two had a foam ball and played down at the bottom of the road but Victor Meldrew came out and told them they were being too noisy, and silent football isn't that great is it. Sad

But they are 11 and 13 now and the park is so much better for everyone.

DorisShutt · 20/04/2013 07:29

I would say that they should go to the park.

While they may be good at looking out for cars, the drivers may not be expecting them. There was a young boy killed in the next quiet street to mine. Driver wasn't speeding, but the kids were playing in the street, there was a car parked so the driver couldn't see them. Sad

From a personal point of view, kids playing out, running about, chasing on the pavement is absolutely fine and doesn't bother me at all - I enjoy hearing it, but I am driven demented by the thud, thud, thud of footballs right outside my windows for a few hours at a time when kids play in the street - and the intrusion as they race into my garden to collect a mishit ball. And regardless of how low they keep the ball, my car (parked on the drive, away from the road) has been hit a few times.

Get them in the park - safer and less risk all round.

HollyBerryBush · 20/04/2013 07:29

All well and good, back in the days of the park keeper - who knew you and your parents. Now that is all outsourced to private security companies who only come round to lock up, there isn't that responsible adult to keep an eye on things. Consequently our local park is full of feckless unemployed teenagers, drinking and doing a bit of dealing. I really don't like my 13yo going up there.

Kids playing out in the street gives a sense of community and vibrancy to an area..

Sparklingbrook · 20/04/2013 07:32

Sad Holly

We are quite lucky. V nice park. I have no worries about them going after school, but not after dark. DS2 came back about 8pm last night.

pudcat · 20/04/2013 07:33

YABU. The noise of the footballs in our road drives me crazy. Also those wretched scooters as they bang them up and down the kerbs doing stunts. They play outside my house and I am forever asking them to go and play outside their own further up the road. I imagine their own parents do not like the noise which seems to vibrate through the house, and send them to play further away. Last summer I had to keep all my windows closed, but could still hear it.