How young is too young to be playing out?

[raspberrysuicide]

There are loads of children living in my road. They all seem to play out all the time, even quite late.
My dd is 6 and will be going into year 2 in September and is desperate to play outside with her friends. We live in a flat so no garden.
Even children from reception class are out there but I think she's still far too young.

Aibu to make her stay in ?

My 4 & 6 year old have done a free flow with the neighbours 4 year old across our shared drive and open gates to back gardens. Our drive is beyond the end of the short cul de sac. We've been around and keep tabs on which zone they're in every few minutes.

I recently let the 6 year old do the full 200m back home following the road while the 4 year old and I did the shorter cut through. That involved passing about 8 houses and a side road serving another 8. That felt different as I met him at the end point. I don't think freely playing out is appropriate yet, as I'd want him to have a better awareness of telling the time. There's also an age gap for older children as theres a lot in their secondary years and a lack of juniors who are a little more experienced, but close enough to play with. The layout of our house blocks the view of our turning circle, but gives a glimpse of the top half of our street and a slither of the green.

It depends a lot on location, child and company.

My children started playing out on our fairly quiet cul-de-sac age 8. My friend lives on a road that makes 3 sides of a central green space. Her children have played out there since age 5 - basically as soon as they could be trusted to cross the road safely and stay off it.
I personally wouldn't let an under 5 year old out to play without supervision. Some people won't let their kids out until they are secondary school age. Its the sort of thing each parent needs to decide for themselves.

Dd is 6 and plays out but her older brother is always out and she mainly plays in our garden (front or back) or the gardens of her 3 wee friends all the same age. They all have to come ask their parent if they want to go in the back garden of each other iyswim so we know where they are and we always have the door or window open and can hear them wittering away!! We are lucky in that there is a hue bit of grass opposite our house and they know they can play there where we can see them.

We live in a cul-de-sac, which backs on to a green. My 7 year old is allowed on the back green and must check if he wants to go to a friend's house (4 families on our tiny street with children at the same school so they're in and out all the time), my nine year old is allowed to the local park (next to the school), the local shop and walks to and from school herself. She has a phone, which is usually used for texts along the lines of "Your dinner's ready"

I think I have my answer!
Let her play out for half an hour, she wasn't back for ages and I was just about to go looking for her when she turned up crying because she had lost her scooter and some big boys had bullied her
Went out looking for the scooter but I think someone must have taken it.