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?

Ds used to play out when we first moved to our area, but he was bullied by the wc children so we kept him indoors and just did activities instead. Ds is grown up now so not a concern anymore.

The current lot of children seem to be a bit more pleasant than the first ones.

Out of interest do you feel it did it any harm not to play out? That's horrible that he was bullied & unable to play out in his community😥

How dissimilar is it though to a MC kid playing in a large garden with whoever happened to come round? My childhood was spent mostly outside making mud pies, building dens and riding bikes. Parents weren't supervising. Big garden.

Yes, who we played with was controlled.

My DD now has plenty of unstructured playtime and very limited screens. But she doesn't play out.

Yep you’re right all my neighbours kids don’t leave the house by foot at all. They only leave in a car with a parent. It’s weird. (This is teenage kids too not just the younger ones). I think people are very lazy now and just drive everywhere or stare at phones.

Mine play out all the time.
How old are your kids op?

Well long before Madeleine McCann, back in the 70s/80s, my mum would say, "Times have changed, since I was young, it's not safe for children any more."

Of course there have always been nutters who attack children (Fanny Adams is a well known victim from the1860s, and the Moors Murders in the 1960s), though I have no idea whether this is getting worse or not. Traffic is worse, obviously. And it's not encouraging when you see troublesome kids roaming round on their own - kicking off at security staff in the supermarket, doing handstands in the middle of the road, fighting and swearing in the park, or whatever. So you think, "Well I don't want my kids doing that, or associating with those kids, or being bullied by those kids." And you keep them at home.

It's different having a playdate in your garden with whoever your parents have invited round to playing in a public space (green/park/playground) where there is a constant stream of children coming and going.

I am working class and live in a council estate where all the kids play out, mine included. I’d say that this is correct, my dc do have activities after school most days but this isn’t the norm for kids here, and it’s actually quite difficult to convince my kids that they’d rather go to swimming lessons etc after school than play out with their friends which they would much rather be doing, it leads to endless complaining from my dc! It’s not so bad in the winter when all the kids are inside and they have nothing else so do.

Our kids never played ‘out’. If they had friends over, they played in the garden.

Mines either at after school club, dance, gymnastics, swimming or Brownies. Same for her friends who do even more clubs.

Agree - we recently moved as our last house, was opposite a row of council houses and the noise from all the kids was unbearable. We've had to downsize but it was worth it for the peace.

I never grew up playing 'out' and don't know anyone who did. We always were in our friends gardens or homes or at home. I wouldn't want my children playing out either. I know my dc friends and their parents well and prefer it that way, rather than random children who I don't even know. Even worse, random kids turning up at my door. Even so aren't most kids at clubs, activities, some aftercare setting? My dc is at school, a club or comes home and so does his friends.

I loved playing out as a child, I'm glad I now live somewhere that children go out to play , my eldest 2 didn't in primary due to the area we lived in at the time.

I have really fond memories of the summer before I went up to secondary school especially, all of us on the estate playing out together

Give me council estates any day, my siblings and I much preferred being able to breathe, roam and manage our own

It isn't really about preference, it was just your normal. If you had been born to a family that didn't play out that would have been your normal instead and you wouldn't have thought anything about it.

Oh, and even though I live on a council estate in an area that mn especially would call deprived all ds' friends parents work, as do I

I work for the CS so my hours, even office hours are flexible and i know quite a few other parents who wfm , there's a couple of mums who work as TAs or dinner ladies as well so they are around after school , also parents who work in shops in the local retail park and do school hours

Theres also a couple of dads I know that are flexible and wfh so not much wrap around care needed for a lot of us

Our schools wrap around care is free, well we pay for breakfast if they want it. Hours are only 7.45 until 4.30 though

Yeah, we aren't earning the mn 100k a year, we live in a cheap area but the majority of us do work! . Lots of us choose not to put our dc in daily activities or after school clubs because we can work around it or , like me don't feel it would benefit our dc to be going to different clubs every night. It's nothing to do with not being able to afford it