Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

Original poster

non playing out street

16 replies

dogsdogsdogs · 02/09/2021 20:56

anyone else live in a street where their kids can't play out due to busy road/ cut through road. I just feel so guilty. I grew up in a culdesac and spent my childhood out playing on my bike with the other neighbours and it was great! We go out a lot and walking distance from a big country park but it's just not the same. I think about it constantly especially in the holidays. I d love to move but house prices are so high at the moment where I live and not many coming on the market. surely there must be plenty of kids who can't play out in the street? I just want to stop feeling this horrendous guilty feeling I have.

OP posts:

Powerof4 · 02/09/2021 20:59

Me too, and had the cup-de-sac growing up, and feel a bit guilty too!

sandragreen · 02/09/2021 21:48

I don't really think younger children do play in the street any more do they? Not where I live anyway. Teenagers roam around together, but are usually going somewhere.

Primary school age are usually in the park or on the beach with an adult lurking somewhere close by.

Flumo · 02/09/2021 21:50

@sandragreen

I don't really think younger children do play in the street any more do they? Not where I live anyway. Teenagers roam around together, but are usually going somewhere.

Primary school age are usually in the park or on the beach with an adult lurking somewhere close by.

My 7 and 9 year olds are out all day everyday on our little street, only come in for food and drink. ( I can see them at all time)

BeetyAxe · 02/09/2021 21:51

I feel the same, and I can’t move either. I try to think of it that kids that have at least one parent that loves them, food in their belly, a bed to sleep in and a school to go to have more than millions of others,and that my child is actually really privileged even without the playing out I had.

nonotmenotI · 02/09/2021 21:56

I live in a cul de sac and no kids play out, it's weird because when I was growing up we played out all the time.

lockdownalli · 02/09/2021 21:58

Christ I think someone would call the police/social services if they saw primary age children out on their own in my neck of the woods

I think it's much rarer now than when I was a child, but I am very old.

Dancingalong · 02/09/2021 22:03

I think we have one of the few streets in our village where the kids do all play out together.

elliejjtiny · 02/09/2021 22:05

I live on a main road too. But I grew up living on a main road so it seems normal to me.

Mistyplanet · 02/09/2021 22:06

We live in a cul de sac and sadly hardly any kids play out here. Or at least not regularly enough for mine to bump into them. The kids can sometimes ride their bikes around a bit outside but i still have to supervise them as theres regularly fast delivery drivers coming down our road unfortunately. I expected our kids to know other kids similar age to ours across the road from us but i never see them play out the front. It is a shame.

RandomMess · 02/09/2021 22:10

We live in a cul de sac the DC that play out have to have an adult with them due to the sheer number of cars that come down to run around.

Car ownership is so huge now I suspect there are few streets where playing out is relatively safe.

Billandben444 · 02/09/2021 22:13

If you read the other thread on here re a gang of young children intimidating a single woman by kicking a ball at her house and car while 'playing out' and you might realise that children have changed and be thankful you live where you do.

WoolyMammoth55 · 02/09/2021 22:15

It's massively location specific. I'm in country bumpkin land in SW and our house backs onto a private access road and all the kids from both sides of the road play out there together, youngest 4ish, oldest 8ish, very reminiscent of my own childhood - in and out of houses and gardens for breaks and snacks but mostly using the tarmac surface for triking and biking and rollerblading... It's lovely and a big part of why we are here.

OP maybe you could walk around some cul de sacs local to you on a random weekend and see if there's playing going on? Because my DSIS is in Oxfordshire and no one does on her cul de sac, it's very frowned upon in helicopter parent land! And maybe that would make you feel better, to know that it's not your road it's just the area :)

CustardGoodJamGoodMeatGood · 02/09/2021 22:19

We're quite lucky, we live on a cul de sac, the road at the bottom is really quiet and our cul de sac is right at the end so don't need to worry about cars flying on the bottom. DD is only 20 months but would have no issues when she's older of her playing up and down on her bike or whatever

Averyyounggrandmaofsix · 02/09/2021 22:24

We live in a cul de sac and no children play out.

Wineat5isfine · 02/09/2021 22:40

We live in a private cul de sac and the children are always out playing.

One of the caveats when we were looking to buy. I do think it’s a game changer…lots of my DC friends come to play here because it’s very safe.

PumpkinKlNG · 02/09/2021 22:42

Same here, main road in London, no kids play out, I feel bad about it and wish we could move but not possible

Flip

Swipe left for the next trending thread