Middle class kids don't play out as much as working class children

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We have moved to a lovely, quiet estate in a very middle class area. I was very excited for my kids as they have friends in the estate & there is lots of safe, green areas with a large park at the foot of the estate.. However the children don't play out! Our previous working class area was always buzzing with kids playing out.
Aibu to say middle class kids don't play out as much as working class kids?

You are correct

It's likely middle class children are at X, Y,Z activity or wrap around care, or doing homework or doing things as a family I'd imagine. There will be more money to spend on those types of things.

They attend more paid-for, structured and supervised classes/activities

They never have. I’m always perplexed when people say ‘everyone played out in the 80s’ as I most certainly did not. Yes, I rode my bike up and down but DM sat on the doorstep supervising.

You are correct. It’s a noted phenomenon. It was mentioned on a program about gardens. When people started to have gardens for pleasure it became a class indicator that your garden was just for playing in rather than growing food.

I live on a middle class estate, the houses that are my direct neighbours are council houses. The only kids I see playing in the street are the council house kids. It’s lovely to see. They play out all day long.

(please no one be offended by my comments on council houses and class).

I live in a very middle class area - about a third go to private schools - and all the kids play out.

No they don't. Statistically kids from less well off homes are more likely to get run over too. There is a link of course.

I find it odd to be honest as it's such a safe area, I feel so bad for my kids as they were so excited to move here but now they miss their old neighbourhood.
Yes I agree that the children here seem to do a lot of extracurriculars & possibly spend longer in school in clubs. My dc have made the effort but there's never any kids free to play 😭

@Singleandproud working class children also do those things

Grew up in a working class area - I was definitely allowed 'out to play' but it was more supervised that some of my neighbours and I was allowed out without an adult at a later age. My more middle class friends across the road (we lived in quite a mixed area) were allowed much free reign and were often at home/out playing when their parents were otherwise occupied.

I'm 'guilty' of having kids that rarely play out. I found myself being shocked recently when on a walk and seeing a bunch of kids likely aged between 6 and 9 playing next to the river with no parents in sight. I then realised that was probably me in the 1980s so it's perhaps a bit of a cultural thing these days. I wouldn't let my 7 and 9 yr old do the same thing.

This.

They have less time to play in general I think, not just 'out'.

YANBU. My parents area is now firmly middle class and although lots of children live near, you hardly see them unless they are coming home from teatime club and piano lessons at dinnertime or getting in the car for swimming or tennis class or rugby or ballet. If they play out it is with a parent and siblings, not with the neighbour children.

Light years from how it was when I was growing up in the same area, or even how it is now in my scruffy area of east London.

It's likely middle class children are at X, Y,Z activity or wrap around care, or doing homework or doing things as a family I'd imagine. There will be more money to spend on those types of things.
Homework or doing things as a family isn’t a money thing though!! Not necessarily a money thing. We were middle class and just would have been in doing homework or playing. We had friends in sometimes but my mum couldn’t see the Green from our house so she didn’t let us go. We were allowed at around 12/13 but had too much homework because of secondary by then

I think you’re probably right, for the reasons others have pointed out above.

I drive through a council estate area on my way to work and the green spaces are usually thronging with kids when the weather is decent.

Reach my area and there’s very little of that going on.

We moved around a lot when I was a child, and my least favourite times were the ones we spent on modern, Privet Drive-style middle class housing estates. They spawn a very distinctive and stylised form of childhood - paddling pool in the back garden, ice pops in the freezer, bike riding in the cul de sac with a parent watching the whole time, occasional barbecues with the neighbours, children's friends curated by parents and undesirables from outside the estate weeded out. Horribly stultifying. Give me council estates any day, my siblings and I much preferred being able to breathe, roam and manage our own friendships.

Possibly because middle class may more likely be dual earned families. Fewer parents to keep an eye on the kids out of the window so they go into wraparound care or structured activities.

We live in an area where the children play out. The children that do play out are always swearing, shouting, riding their bikes dangerously in and out of the road etc. I don’t let my dc play out. They are welcome to invite friends over. I don’t want them playing out unsupervised. I’m amazed at the age of some of the children allowed out on their own round here (nice town in South Norfolk) - some don’t look any older than 5ish. My son is 12 and goes to a specialist independent school (council funded, he has autism) so he doesn’t have a peer group with the kids where we live anyway (all his friends are spread across the county) so that helps but I really don’t like young children playing out unsupervised.

Me too! Those threads about the "freedom" everyone had in 80s childhoods don't reflect my experience at all.

In the past there would have been a lot less space in a working class house for playing too, eg sharing bedrooms

YANBU
middle class kids tend to do more structured classes which can be too expensive for some WC

Ours did, all of the local children played on the beach which was our equivalent of playing in the street I suppose.

More structured activities, more room in the house/garden, more being taken out at the weekend for family bike rides/places with nice playgrounds etc.

When dd was a kid there were a few other girls of similar age in our cul-de-sac, so they did 'play out' a bit but more often would play in each others gardens, until they were old enough to troop off to the playground.

Might just be that particular neighbourhood although MC probably have more activities after school and at the weekend. In my village most kids play out, regardless of their 'class'.

You are correct.
children have more scheduled activities.

when playing outside, parental supervision is also expected at a higher age and a closer level. It means a parent has to be available if the children want to go outside and they can’t freely move from place to place.