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?

10 for me , he started playing out from the autum of last year . To be honest they all kind of hangout outside our houses on there scooters so they don't go far really .

Never for us. We never liked the idea of children playing in the street or congregating at parks in large groups.

Depends where you live.

[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]

What utter pish.

Who the fuck is going to get arrested for allowing their 4 year old to play in their own garden

About 7,we live on a quiet street.Kids are always out.

Mine's an only and has been playing outside unsupervised since she started school. We're on a small rural cul de sac with a number of other children living here. She couldn't go past a certain point at first. Now if they're off exploring in the field, she comes and asks. She's 10.

@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.

^^ wind your neck In, it's their own garden. She's not sending them down the mines

[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]
Give over....I will be arrested for neglect for letting my 4 and 7yr old play in their own garden

Do you suggest I am constantly with my 4yr old and 7yr old just in case there is a traumatic incident? I'd imagine constantly having me hovering would be much more traumatic than having freedom and trust would be

Down the mines...now there's an idea

Dd2 is 5 she is now allowed out the front of our cul-de-sac to play. She knows if she wanders off she comes in.
Dd1 was allowed more freedom. She regularly went to the park with her cousins at the same age.

Depends on area/traffic etc. We live on a very quiet road and my 2 aged 10 and 6 play out with our neighbours who range in age from 6 to 11. Unsupervised although I poke my head out every so often to keep an eye on things as do the other parents. I love that they’re able to do this and have fun outside without constant adult supervision or interference.

[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 are in the garden also one of the joys of living rurally is you get a bit more freedom to roam than you do in the city. My 6yoare allowed to play in the garden unsupervised. 8 and 10 can roam within a defined area. A few hundred metres. They carry a walkie talkie mainly they use it to ask if I can deliver snacks to the trampoline.

For letting her kids play in their garden? Come on get real.

Also only allowing 8/9 year olds where you can see them? Sorry but where is the freedom of childhood? That is crazy

Round here (pretty rough area) kids of all ages are out unsupervised, even as young as 4 with older siblings.

This is not something I particularly advocate, but I do think there is a safety in numbers thing that helps.

I would say ten is fine to be out with a friend, or walking to the shops for an hour or so without a parent.

For me I think obviously it massively depends on the area and also the child but if they are pretty sensible and with sensible friends / siblings and it’s a safe area then I think from around secondary school age.

My eldest is 8 and there is no way I would let her play out alone.

It isn’t that I don’t trust her, it’s other people that frighten me. Perhaps that’s OTT but I am the way I am!

I let my y6 dd whose 11 on the front. Still won't allow her to walk home. When she starts comp in sept ill take her and she can stay in library til I've finished work x

Its lovely where we live on a private estate on a cul de sac

It totally depends on where you live. We live in a small, rural cul-de-sac with lots of children and they seem to start playing out alone from 5. Younger children play out with their parents. DS didn’t as he’s 11 and our street didn’t exist when he was 5 but since we’ve moved here, he’s basically adopted a famous five lifestyle, rambling all over the countryside with his friends from the street.

Do you mean out alone in the street?

My eldest two are (almost) 6 and 7 and they okay in the garden alone but not the street. I can't imagine letting them out alone in the street any time soon.

I remember playing out at their age but we lived in a quiet cul-de-sac and there were fewer cars on the road then (back in my day - showing my age!)

Mine have been playing out since about 5.
But we're very lucky to live in a block of maisonettes that's built around an enclosed square.
So they're within eye shot of my kitchen window the entire time.
DS(8) has been allowed to run errands to the shop (2 streets away) since his birthday and has just recently started to take himself to playground at the end of the street.

So many children spend their entire childhoods closely supervised and then everyone wonders why they’ve no independence, self-confidence, etc.

I think playing out depends on maturity, how many others are out and whether you live in a busy area, although 7/8 at the latest I’d say.

I wholeheartedly believe it is one of the most important things for a child to do.

Dd1 has just turned 9, I've just started letting her walk a different way to the shop to me and we meet at the shop...it's not even 5 minutes but giving her a bit of responsibility. No friends very nearby so don't play out but both walk to a shop near my work together, dd2 7, although it's only a few minutes.

I remember walking 15 mins to a shop with my younger dsis at about 7/8 ,and obviously 15 minutes back with no phone or way to contact dps but I know my df would be horrified if I said mine were doing that now!

Mines autistic (high functioning) she was around 9 when playing out with a friend (i knew the mum well).

In our old area kids ran wild, a 5 year old walked into my house in a swimming costume asking if she could play 😲. She lived 3 doors down and was out everyday after school.

Not really to “play out” but my 10 year old is allowed to walk to the local shop and play in the park with a few friends.

My dc are 8 & 9 (eldest has adhd) and have been playing out for 2 or 3 years now. Their school friends live nearby and they either play out on the street or go to each others' gardens. Our street doesn't have much in the way of traffic and the back gardens are quite large. All the other adults know which child lives at which house too, which helps. At meal times I just go to the gate and shout their names and they come running.