What age can children play out alone.

[Gee29]

Genuinely intrigued at what other people think. My eldest is 10 and the vast majority of his friends play out alone. DS does not as he is autistic. He sometimes plays out the front with a kid he goes school with who lives on the street.

Dd is 5! I’ve never let her play out alone. She feels too young. She’s in year 1 and not 6 until August.

Many of her friends nearby play out alone. Aibu to to think she’s still too young?

I guess it depends on the child, how mature they are etc and where you live. It is a very safe place. Virtually zero crime rates and most people know each other. But you still worry of course.

So yeah.. thoughts? When did you let your children play out alone?

Mine never did. Only one of mine is not autistic but even she didn't get to play out alone. It was never something I felt necessary. I suppose it's different for a street full of kids if they are all out tighter but we didn't live close by any other kids of her age. So she didn't play out alone.

I think 5 is far too young
and I don't agree at all with letting kids just run wild in the streets anyway.

but it also depends A LOT on where you live, and who they are with.
It's not the same when there are older siblings around.

Meeting in the park opposite the house to play football, from 9 or 10, not earlier.

Thank you. Often Dd gets upset that her friends are out and she is not. I did let her play with a friend out the front fully supervised by me today! She’s DD’s age and no sign of her mum! I guess it depends on the child!

If she’s generally well behaved and won’t break the rules and go off somewhere I’d leave her for a few mins at a time and keep checking back.

I think it depends entirely where you are. If you're in a very quiet close with no through traffic, that's one thing. Somewhere busier is quite another.

Well for me it was 11 and 9 (DD1 and DD2 together)
I suppose it depends on the road you live on really but that was my comfort point.
We have lots of young children in our street and no-one lets their children play unsupervised at 5 (or 6/7/8 either)

Mines 4 but not ready to play out yet. Similar age children play out without adult supervision but they have older siblings. Once he starts school I might let him play outside but I'll be glued to front window watching or sat in my car 🤣 it's a very safe area with lots of families but I'd still have to keep an eye trained on him

It depends where you live.

If in a small cul-de-sac with no passing traffic then I suppose children will have the chance of playing outside with others, but 5 is too young.

My own children never really played out by themselves because we lived just off a busy London road, but my grandchildren who live rurally are semi-feral and seem to roam alone everywhere - as a an urban girl I'm horrified but keep my mouth shut!

DD5 will play outside on her scooter or skateboard with the boy next door, who is 2 years older. We live in a tiny cul de sac (10 houses) in a very quiet hamlet though. I keep the front door open so I can keep an ear or eyeout for her and she's under strict instructions to stick to the path and to go no further than a lampost 15 yards away. She's very sensible but I'll admit that I never feel 100% comfortable about it and always call her in after about half an hour with an excuse.

5 is v young but we lived on a cul de sac & I played out at that age (& younger!).
I wouldn’t let my DS play out yet & he is 6 in September

1. According to my neighbours. And the teacher who told me I was doing DS a disservice by never letting him out alone (I took younger sibling too).

I let mine at 8 because the neighbours daughter is 11 and sensible. But only in view of my window.

Where I grew up it was the norm to play out from 6 or 7 with the children on our quiet street, and from 9/10 you'd have the freedom to go further. It could be younger if you had an older sibling in the group. It was a close knit community, everyone knew everyone, if we were messing around then word would have got back home before we got home, and if we needed anyone there was always someone to get.

I hate playing out so my child will never be allowed to play in the street.

It depends where you live, surely (both in terms of part of the country and type of street)?
Quiet cul-de-sac in a 'safe' town or village where lots of kids play out - I'd be happy for a 4 year old to play out.
Main road in a major city - probably not until secondary school age.

9 for us

Ours are 7 and 4, and they are allowed to play outside without supervision but they stay in our garden.

The garden isn't fenced and I can't see most of it from the house, but I trust them to stay in it. If they want to go out of it to play they need to ask me first. We live rurally with no pavements so they would go onto neighbours fields or farm yards (with permission of course)

4yr old would only be allowed to go with the 7yr old, never alone as she's a daft wee thing.

None play out here, main road in London, feel a bit sad mine never got to experience playing out

@BigPyjamas I really don't think it's suitable for your 7 year old to be supervising your 4 year old. Firstly if something was to happen to the 4 year old then your 7 year old will be traumatised and will also blame themselves. You on the other hand will be arrested for child neglect.

Supervise your children.

Quiet area but never let mine play in the street, they could play in the garden and invite whoever they liked over.

[quote HPmagic]@BigPyjamas I really don't think it's suitable for your 7 year old to be supervising your 4 year old. Firstly if something was to happen to the 4 year old then your 7 year old will be traumatised and will also blame themselves. You on the other hand will be arrested for child neglect.

Supervise your children. [/quote]
They’re in the garden though. I’d leave mine in the garden unsupervised. If they wanted to they could have left it from about 4 I suppose.

To answer the question, properly alone, in the park down the road, 10.

If we had a small cul de sac, maybe a bit younger. 8?

Depends on the street, but 9 for us.

Half of the estate where I live let their children play out from as young as 5, but I don't. My daughter played out from about 10 but only in the section between our house and her friends. My son's have never asked to play out. They are aged 11 and 9, my 11 year old D's does walk school and back on his own though

9 was with same age friends, he was going to the local shop at 8 with a friend in the year above. Just there and back.

Depends on the place/child I guess. Our DD has been playing out since around 6.5 - she's not long turned 7 and she goes out almost every night/day to play with the same group of kids from her school.