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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:
Sparklingbrook · 21/04/2013 16:34

Exactly expat.

EmmelineGoulden · 21/04/2013 16:40

expat the road always used to be a space with far more varied uses than simply moving from one place to another. Playing out on the road, along with other forms of socializing and domestic use have a much longer history than car driving.

EduCated · 21/04/2013 16:44

Child employment has a much longer history than schooling. Shall we send them all back to work?

Whatever used to happen, roads are undeniably far busier and more dangerous spaces.

We also seem to be getting away from the fact that these are 12yo children with the option of going to a local park, but they prefer to play football in the street.

cantspel · 21/04/2013 16:46

Definition of road
noun
1a wide way leading from one place to another, especially one with a specially prepared surface which vehicles can use:

Definition of park
noun
1a large public garden or area of land used for recreation:

Spot the one children are supposed to play in

KatyDid02 · 21/04/2013 16:50

At age 12 they should go to the park. My own children play out on the road but they don't play football on the road, we are lucky enough to have a field behind our house and they are allowed to play football there.

marjproops · 21/04/2013 16:54

EXACTLY waht EMUZ said.

and i saved long and hard for YEARS to be able to afford the cheapest car that to me is the crown jewels, plus my plants and things.
they are there for ME to enjoy, not for yOU to destroy and then take no responsibilty for.

and i dont care if i sound like a grumpy old bag, it really wasnt like that in my day, we had loads of happy play memories and RESPECT for the neighbours AND their property.

marjproops · 21/04/2013 16:55

and bikes are just as bad, when theyre not whizzing round corners and an approaching car doesnt see and then.... or they scratch your casr, bikes thrown against cars, or damage wing morrors.

yes Im looking at YOU, ex-neighbour.

tass1960 · 21/04/2013 16:57

Am reading this while listening to a group of teens flying down on our road on skateboards - no thought for the parked cars - shouting and swearing and generally being a nuisance - they don't even move when the residents are trying to park the bloody cars - am very close to phoning the police but it just seems a bit OTT - they don't even live in this street and there is a skate park a few hundred yards down the road too

lucybrad · 21/04/2013 16:58

yabu

12 year olds dont have the ball skills to avoid hitting peoples cars and car owners dont want to have to spend the time 'supervising' to make sure their cars don't get hit.

Play in the park! - I'm not against kids playing in the street if its a cul de sac with good visability - its just the football bit I dont like.

expatinscotland · 21/04/2013 17:25

' Playing out on the road, along with other forms of socializing and domestic use have a much longer history than car driving.'

And yet they have always been built with the primary purpose of transport. Not a playground.

EmmelineGoulden · 21/04/2013 17:37

In what sense built expat? In the sense of laying the tarmac? Then yes. In the sense of there being space around homes? Then no. Public land has always had many uses, and informal meeting space was not least of them.

expatinscotland · 21/04/2013 17:43

In the sense that a council decides to build them, and even has the power to force people from their homes, for reasons of transport. It is a public space created for ease of transport.

Might be prudent to read cantspel's posts. The definition of a road and the definition of a park.

cantspel · 21/04/2013 17:44

A road is not public land. It is a public highway.

cantspel · 21/04/2013 17:54

Penalties for causing certain kinds of danger or annoyance.
The Highways Act states, section 161

(1)If a person, without lawful authority or excuse, deposits any thing whatsoever on a highway in consequence of which a user of the highway is injured or endangered, that person is guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding [F1level 3 on the standard scale].

[F2(2)If a person without lawful authority or excuse?

(a)lights any fire on or over a highway which consists of or comprises a carriageway; or

(b)discharges any firearm or firework within 50 feet of the centre of such a highway,

and in consequence a user of the highway is injured, interrupted or endangered, that person is guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale.]
(3)If a person plays at football or any other game on a highway to the annoyance of a user of the highway he is guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding [F3level 1 on the standard scale].

(4)If a person, without lawful authority or excuse, allows any filth, dirt, lime or other offensive matter or thing to run or flow on to a highway from any adjoining premises, he is guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding [F4level 1 on the standard scale].

EmmelineGoulden · 21/04/2013 18:04

That's a shame.

BuggerLumpsAnnoyed · 21/04/2013 18:16

Theres a group of kids, about 10 years old that play football in the street here. I like it. They seem pretty cautious and its a very quiet street. I don't think i would want to live in a world were they couldn't play on a safe street.

Floggingmolly · 21/04/2013 18:23

They prefer playing in the road... Tough shit, roads are for vehicles; you'd be up in arms if they had any sort of altercation with a car, wouldn't you?
What else do you sanction your little princes doing, just because they "prefer" it?

WorrySighWorrySigh · 21/04/2013 18:39

YABU

My DD was hit by a car in our quiet cul-de-sac. The slowest speed accident in history but she was still left with a broken foot and soft tissue damage to her knee which causes her problems now, 6 years later.

propertyNIGHTmareBEFOREXMAS · 21/04/2013 20:14

Yabu. It is chav for children to play football in the street. It lowers house prices. Seriously!

WorrySighWorrySigh · 21/04/2013 20:35

My DD was cautious, they all watched out for cars, until the day she forgot. She was 11 at the time. It was bad enough but it could have been an awful lot worse. When car and human connect it is the squidgy organic thing which comes off worse.

thermalsinapril · 21/04/2013 20:45

YABU

evansthebread · 21/04/2013 20:47

Park all the way for me. As a kid, we lived in a quiet street, quite long and dead end. All the kids played out there. It was the done thing. Until one day, one of my friends was hit by a car being driven by a drunk driver.

It was something I will never forget. The blood on the driver when he staggered out of the car. The angle my friend was lying at, half on, half off the pavement. No one ever thought that something like that could have happened on a quiet afternoon in the middle of the school hols. None of us knew the driver. He was so drunk he'd got lost and then hit the accelerator instead of the brake when he saw us.

If you have access to a park use it. Around here they've been trying to close them saying the kids don't use them. If you think you need to, pop there yourself periodically to make sure all's okay.

Better safe than sorry.

expatinscotland · 21/04/2013 20:58

evans how awful! Hope your friend made it.

ssd · 21/04/2013 21:03

but what do the kids do if the nearest park is 50 mins walk away?

evansthebread · 21/04/2013 21:08

Expat - no, sadly. Even as youngsters we all KNEW. The angle, the absolute silence for a few moments.

Only child, parents devastated. As were we all.

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