To be in two minds about letting DD out in the street?

[NeoMaxiZoomDweebie]

She turned 9 in late July....she is allowed to play outside our house as we are in a cul de sac with only very occassional traffic when people start coming home from work...she rides her bike with her little sister, or plays on the grass...there are no other DC her age in the street. She has friends from school sometimes and they are also allowed out on the front.

Tomorrow her cousin is coming over...she's a streetwise age 10...she lives in a small village where she's had the run of the whole area from age 9...she crosses the road there and goes to the local shop as well as calls for her mates.

Now...my dilemma is this...can I let the older girls (not little DD) go to the little play park up the road? It's out of my estate with no roads to cross but once you leave our estate, then there's a busy-ish road beside the path...it's a 5 min walk from our house to the park...it's only a small park with some grass and a few pieces of equipment...I could give them a phone to carry.

AAAHHHGH! I can't stand not knowing when to let them go! Her cousin doesn't know the area well and it's on the outskirts of a small city...so it's got more to it than the cousin's small (but roughish) village...my DD is VERY innocent...she's been possibly too protected and I don't want to hinder her or have her too naive....but I don't feel quite ready for this...

let them go,tell them you and little dd will also make your way up in a bit? then stay a bit leaving them to walk home after you?

Only YOU know your DD and the area where you live. For what it's worth, i would let my DCs go, in MY home town and also in my DParents home town. That doesn't mean to say that I would let them go in yours. I don't enough about them to judge. YANBU to have doubts - that's what makes a good parent. I think children need a bit of independence, they thrive on the knowledge that they are trusted.

If there are no roads to cross then sounds fine to me.

actually,ime,its bigger kids who are the ones to be wary of....not busy roads.

That seems like a good midway balance Soulsister! thanks for that! Laughs it's a mixed area...it's very posh in some streets (more than a mil for a house) just up the road...like three mins walk...then about 10 mins away is a biggish roughish council estate with some proper little hoodlums on it...the park I'm talking about isn't the most popular one in the area...that's much bigger and attracts all the teens....the one up the road is the kind of place you'd go with your toddler....(mean mummy I am)

But it's a nice area in general....close to a posh-ish small city. But it doesn't matter HOW posh or otherwise an area is there are nice and nasty people everywhere aren't there?

Soul that's what DH says...the bigger park seems to be where they all hang out though...and that's a ten min walk in the other direction.