Does this type of childhood still exist

[Shushimwatchingemmerdale]

Sort of inspired by another thread.

I live abroad with toddler Dd, 3. We have a great lifestyle by the beach etc, but, it isn’t a British childhood, the way I remember it.
Growing up on a cul de sac, friends on tbe street or if not, very nearby. Walking to school and summers spent reading and playing on the street or going on bike rides.
Here it’s a drive to school, a drive to friends houses, play dates etc are organised around the cinema or shopping trips, all great, but just not the same.
Is this how childhood still is in the U.K.? Or am I not missing anything?

It’s like that for kids in my village. Idyllic till they’re about 13. Then they realise all the fun things to do are in the nearby city, there’s 3 buses a day and the ticket costs a fortune. Swings and roundabouts!

I think my kids are like this. We live on a street with lots of families and kids, and they mostly go to the nearest school, so all friends. I do walk them to school but we meet all their friends on the way. They play out a lot or go in and out of each other’s gardens, of course they’ll let me know ‘I’m going to Jamie’s garden’ or they’ll come in our garden.

I think it just depends, of course if you live far away from school you probably won’t be able to walk to school every day. We live just outside a smallish town so school is close by.

We moved to a village so that our children could have the childhood that we both had.

They play in the street (private road - very quiet) and in the fields out the back of our houses.

They build dens and have a very outdoor life.

Walk to school / park visits before and after school.

It’s idyllic and just what we wanted for all of them 🥰

Not an estate but we live rurally with a few farms on the same long stretch of back roads, furthest would be 3 miles away and there are 5 of us.

Children from the age of about 5 walk up and down the road with siblings and slightly older neighbouring children (8-10 year olds) the school is now too far away to walk too as smaller schools are closing at a crazy rate.

The children here all play unsupervised, my two year old will be doing the same once she is a bit more reliable in a few years time. There are shallow rivers to play in, trees to climb, and we all know each other very well so would have no issue with her going about as long as she was with older ones at 5 years.

The difference I guess is only the neighbour's use the road as it leads to nowhere else, the kids are in groups of friends and they are all savvy about safety around farms, livestock and machinery

They do have that life but it definitely depends where you live! We live on a main road in an urban area and it wouldn't be safe for young children. There are a couple of parks nearby and I would love to let DS9 just go off to them with a friend but one is frequented by drug addicts and has been known for a guy exposing himself there and the other is frequented by teens causing trouble. If we lived more rurally with all the kids from school in surrounding streets I would definitely let DS play out. In fact we want to move somewhere like this in the next couple of years.

The road we live on has a lane running behind it that connects to all the back gardens.
Pre Covid all of the kids would be out there all day. My two have gone past it now but since the restrictions lifted there are no children out there now.
My children tend to meet friends at the park or shops now but nothing like the freedom we had as children.

We live close to the school there are lots of DC around playing out all day, most of the younger ones have supervision there is always someone to play with.
8/9 bike rides and local estate hide & seek it can go on for hours.
I've a 6 Yr old who loves street playing and a 12 year old who stays in 24/7 from a young age unless I'm with her.
It depends on the DC too.

Kids play unsupervised here from a very young age but not in a good way. It borders in neglect in my opinion. Young kids of four or five out in the street. There's no off street parking so no visibility, boy racers, lots of drunk students etc. I wouldn't exactly call it idyllic.

Ours is like that. Live rurally. Children are still reception but play 'unsupervised' (we know whose garden they are in and everyone is watching them). Bikes are impractical because the lane is too bumpy whilst they are learning.

They have a lot of perceived freedom which will become real freedom as they grow.

Sorry, I realised that sounded a bit smug. I didn't mean it to. I understand how lucky our family is to live in this area.

We live on an estate where the houses are arranged around green spaces. There are about 20 houses round our green, no roads you could accidentally walk our into from the green, and even the roads which are nearby are really quiet. The kids play out there together. Most of them are under 5 at the moment so are supervised but I anticipate that in a few years time they will play semi-supervised (everyone watching out of their kitchen window, or a few parents watching all the kids).
Our kids can walk to school in a matter of minutes, only crossing one quiet road - they will probably walk to school by themselves when they're older, or I might walk them to the road to help them cross and then they can go the rest of the way themselves.

So in short, yes, this sort of childhood does exist if you live in the right place and you choose it

My kids have this kind of childhood in Bangkok. We live in a compound of 45 houses, gated with guards so no way they can escape! We have a communal playground and pool. My children play out unsupervised all the time. There are usually other kids around, or adults. The gardening ladies and the guards are always around, they don't speak English but they are kind and helpful, they would certainly step in if there was a problem.

They ride bikes/scooters and knock for other kids. They know whose house to go to for a snack they wouldn't be allowed at home! They know where to go if they can't find me (which neighbours). At New Years we had a party outside and I left my children asleep at home (only a few metres away). They knew where to find me if they woke up (we took the baby out in the pram to the party, my 6 year old woke up and joined us when the fireworks woke her up).

We walk to school but it's a busy road so they can't go alone. We're moving to another school this year so will have to take the train. Most kids in my compound walk or take the school bus, depending in their school.

Teens here hang out with their friends outdoors a lot, and even play with the younger ones.

From about age 8 mine will be able to walk to a local bakery and corner shop, or sooner if they go with an older neighbour. Nowhere else as they'd have to cross a busy road.

It's idyllic! I always have itchy feet for my next move but it would be hard to leave where we are now. Not Bangkok itself (although we do like it) but my compound and my neighbours!

My kids have what you described in UK - we live by their school, so there are a lot of children in the neighbourhood. They walk to school. They can play out on the street, there's a park round the corner that the 11 yr old takes himself off to seeing friends. They call round each others houses.We have street parties. Beach within walking distance - though we always go with them there for safety reasons in the water etc.
I love that we can walk everywhere and don't spend the whole time ferrying them around by car, or they can go on their bikes.
11year olds new secondary is a mile or so away so he'll walk there with mates too.

It sounds like where I live, I'm concidered odd that my 4 and 7 year old don't play out without me. I don't think the child of that age that play unsupervised are being adequately cared for.

Funnily enough we've moved a few times but the place which was closest to what you describe was a tower block in East London!
The block was full of families, no green space but had a kids play area downstairs and tonnes of security. First thing I noticed when moving in was youngish (5+) kids taking the lifts themselves or playing in the cities. I'm the evenings the play areas were full of parents with very young kids, and older ones unsupervised.
Most the residents were from abroad so I guess had no families nearby nor did they do many after-school activities so plenty of opportunities for spontaneous play dates. My daughter loved it, she had 3 friends that went to her school and they were always in and out of each others flats.
Contrast that with a small town / suburb where I am now, her friends all have so many activities there's not as much time and others will always be doing things with their extended families at weekends. She's a bit older now so we are starting to let her go to the shop on her own but the play dates are fewer in between and still organised. It's hard to do otherwise when that's the norm.

The thing is, living somewhere ‘rural’ and ‘lovely’ doesn’t actually protect your child from someone else’s sinister intentions or from danger.

If you think about any number of high profile cases over the last, say, thirty years, many of them were from rural and/or affluent parts of the U.K. I appreciate that’s partly explained by the fact these cases generate more publicity than others (I had a friend who was raped and murdered as a teenager and I doubt any of you would know her name because she just wasn’t middle class enough - also to be fair it happened the same day as another incredibly high profile event which dominated news for weeks) but living somewhere rural doesn’t mean your child is necessarily any safer than anywhere else.

Rural places still have cars, they still have water, they still have people going through them.

I feel very lucky with my cul de sac nearly all the children play out. There's always 1 or 2 parents sitting on chairs watching everyone. If one needs to pop inside for a drink or something can just ask another to keep an eye (they're all quite young 3 upwards). It's great and even though we only rent I really want to stay here for most of his childhood!

I live in a cul de sac that’s full of children playing out unsupervised though to be fair there is usually one parent from one house sat out . The only problem is that while it’s not too busy as it’s resident’s parking there are still cars and the children don’t seem to be taught any road sense .

It exists in my area (big scary London funnily enough) my road has lots of kids knocking about, my DC are too young at the moment to go out alone but play out the front with me supervising, give it half hour and there is always other kids that join in. They have "playdates" with one of our neighbours. The adults have a tea while the kids run around. We live 5 min away from 2 primary schools and 2 secondary schools and see older primary kids walking with their friends in the morning.

I grew up with the same childhood in East London.

Depends where in the uk. Where I live (not near the beach sadly) kids walk to school and play in the (quiet) street with friends. I guess those in cities or out in the sticks might be driven to school and activities.

Like you OP, I grew up in an urban cul de sac. I walked to school and had friends on the street.

My kids are growing up rurally, so the surroundings are nice but it does mean a drive (car or bus) to school and a drive to friends' houses.

I don't really recognise the bit in your post about play dates being shopping or the cinema though. Here they'd usually either play at home or outside, a trip to the cinema or shopping would be less common.

I'm from New Zealand. Practically everywhere (apart from some areas of Auckland and Wellington) is like this.

We also live in a city ( a seaside one) but still have freedoms like that for our kids

DS finished his A levels last year.
We live a few mins from his high school and in the road there were three other houses close by with dc his age and they did all play out in the road running between the drives from about age 8. Myself and the other parents would keep an eye out on them. When older they sometimes went to the small park at the end of the road. He also had a few friends that went to the same High school so they would stop by. The dc and some of the parents had a water fight one very hot summer. I love the road we live on, most people have lived here for at least 25 years. The house next door has just been sold it’s quite stressful as no immediate neighbours have changed for over 15 years.

I live on a quite edge of town estate and kids do play out. There are the unsupervised and the supervised versions. In unsupervised from age 4 are out to about age 12. All seem like nice enough kids, no antisocial behaviour just different parenting. I get very nervous if I can't see my DC. Also the unsupervised seem to be told to play out, whilst the supervised are using the roads to cycle but then going into into other neighbours houses/ gardens. I do worry as you just don't know the hazards they have or if the parents are trustworthy.