Streets closed to allow children to play outside.

[Meglet]

Reclaiming the streets for kids

I love this idea, temporary road closures so children can play out again. We we lucky enough to live in a cul-de-sac so were always allowed out in the 1980's.

The mum in the article is quite right in saying the park isn't an answer as you have to trek back and forth and get back for supper. At least the parents can get things done at home if children are playing out the front together. We live on a rat run so I can't put the kids out the front .

That seems more a case of deliberate vandalism than a reason to stop children playing out altogether though.
I suspect if more children were playing outside the horrible ones would moderate their behaviour as the children as a whole would be better supervised and would self-police to some extent.

OK if there is an aggressive atmosphere in the street anyway brighthair I can see your problem. Kids really deliberately kicking footballs at your car? That is not kids playing out that is the problem though, it's kids having no respect for property/ other people.

I live right by our village playground and tell other people's kids off from time to time if I see them throw sand or wave sticks dangerously, even if my own kids aren't involved, and they always hang their heads and apologies - and the only threat ever needed to get kids to behave is that you might have a chat with thei mum - never had to take it that far, nor had to deal with anything worse than sand-pit sand being thrown :o

It isn't deliberate as such (except the air rifle) its more that they don't care. They won't take the children up the road to the field or supervise them while they play, they literally get left to roam. Sorry, I know I sound biased, and I know not all children are like this, but after a long time of this I am slightly worn down?

Becauseitsbedtime - basically they put goal posts behind/ to the side of my car and they don't care if they hit it. When it was damaged I was too frightened to go round so I sent a relative who the parents threatened. The police came out and basically said they don't have the respect for property as none of it is paid for by them. Said neighbour isn't allowed to speak or come near me now

I guess what I'm trying to say is that there are areas where the kids have no respect for property - so how would closing the road for them to play in make it work? It wouldn't, it would make it ten times worse. The best thing they could do round here is close the local shop and move the community centre

In an ideal world you could combine the creation of "play zones" with a visible authority presence I.e. a youth worker or community support officer to keep a lid on anti-social behaviour.
Unfortunately that's unlikely to happen due to cost. More DCs on the streets must be a good thing though, as most are well behaved and responsible, if only the "feral" ones are out, that's when they get bored and break stuff.

Sorry you have to live in an area like that Brighthair :( BUt surely that is not the norm and can't be used as a blanket reason why kids generally shouldn't play out?

I really do think "normal" kids gain loads socially playing out rather than being taken to a playground and supervised there and then taken home, and are almost guaranteed to be out running about a lot longer that way. In our village there is only one mum who helicopters her 5 year old and is never more than a couple of meters from him, running along behind his bike, even jogging up to be close by in the playground and interfering in his games - he is an only child and obviously wants to play with the other kids, and they do include him up to a point, but all complain about his mum, and think he is a baby - and he is very whingy and rather selfish in his play, which I can't help seeing as connected (shares other kids toys but hands anything of his he isn't playing with to his mum to protect so nobody else can have a go).

I had a friend over from the UK whose kids are not used to playing out (they live in a city on a busy road and don't know any of their neighbours) and they seemed totally overwhelmed at the idea and kept coming back in and getting "work books" out to do or asking to watch TV, whilst my kids wanted to be out in the glorious sunshine all day - was quite a culture clash. I can see why they might have felt odd when there were German kids out, but even when it was only my kids and we sat in the garden to watch them they seemed unable to deal with it and kept coming back inside after half an hour or so!

I think it's a lovely idea too - I noticed the bit in the article where it said "we didn't know there were so many children who lived in the road". I think that, in itself lends the whole thing to just be "a beginning" - the point being, the families get to know each other, and become comfortable with them knocking for each other at other times and playing in each other's gardens and houses. Before this initiative, they didn't know each other existed.
I was pleased to see that residents could drive in and out if they needed to - it makes it more realistic and less likely to forge resentment.
Of course it won't work on every road, but, where it could, it's a great thing.

I was actually thinking about this the other day. When new estates of houses are built there are all kinds of rules... 2 parking spaces, places for bins etc... But absolutely no provisions for children and play areas.

Army quarters (so similar to estates) have playgrounds and green spaces all the time (IME). The new build estate around me has no playground, no green spaces and sign everywhere saying 'NO BALL GAMES'!!!! What is with that?

Sounds lovely.

I livee on a little street of terraces, our back road leads to the park which is on a cycle path so lots of kids play out. I love it, after school on sunny days the park is full, the back road and cycle path has kids on bikes and scooters, all ages play together. It is fab. The main problem is dragging ourselves home for tea!

I used to live very near this area... and concepts discussed in the article are one of the reasons I'm hoping to move back there soon!

The roads near my old house were quite quiet so the local kids used to do that. Only without adult supervision.

My question would be if a ball (or anything else) is thrown/hit and damages a car, window, green house etc who is responsible for the repairs? I've had all three happen when living in my old house and was not impressed!

I work for a charity that promotes play for children in London - I'm quite familiar with the playingout people in Bristol and think they are doing great work. They really don't do 'organised' activities, just provide the space and the kids get on with it.

Like some posters have said it does seem a bit sad that playing out has to become anything other than totally spontaneous but given the dominance we have afforded to cars on our streets, necessary in some areas if play is going to happen at all. But if enough streets did it, maybe.....

As an antidote to the 'no ball game' signs we have actually produced signs saying 'play priority area'. Rather than banning playing in particular areas, this encourages it to take place in other locations where hopefully no one has a problem with it. Sends a more positive message anyway.

lots of us playworkers are (or at least were!) trying to promote outdoor play - seems we're fighting a losing battle at the moment though!

fizzyone I don't mean this as negative towards you, in fact the opposite, I am sure you do a great and worthwhile job - but how sad is it that play has to be promoted by a charity! :(

germy since I started posting on MN I have been shocked by how many adults don't think kids playing out is a good thing... I though that was the preserve of a few sour faced grumpy old men/women but it seems quite a mainstream view!

I live in a 'not very nice' area. My kids play out, they have done since we moved here. A lot of kids their age play out round here.

We're right opposite a park and so the road is sort of blocked off with garden type things, every now and again, allowing only for parking in front of houses.

One car was damaged once and my house was targetted by a group of wayward kids whose parent didn't seem to do much parenting, after about a week the whole neighbourhood got fed up of them and rallyed together in telling the littles sods to feck off everytime they came near this part of the street. No more damaged cars and the nice kids can still play out.

Yay good for you DMC :)

it doesn't help that they are closing down staffed adventure playgrounds either, kids have to play somewhere

How would you all feel though if your cosy little "playing out cul de sac" was invaded by either the local yoof who normally hang out in the park with cans of cider/spliffs or by kids like mine, who live on a rat run road that could never be a playing out street.

Just a thought.... I grew up in the 1970s to play out on a small estate and in the wood behind. There just wasn't many cars- houses had mostly just 1 car if any, and Monday to Saturday the cars went to work with their owners. Wouldn't be the same now- lots of homes have 2 or even more cars and employment is either less so adults are around and moving cars in the day/immediately post school hours, or they are shift working in our 24hr society, with the same effect.

We live on a cul de sac. Lots of the children play out here like that anyway with no need to close the street. The children learn to be a bit road savvy and the older ones look out for the little children. And the cars on our street are pretty good and come onto the street slowly.

Must be much harder on busier streets but can't see that closing the roads would go down well - people have to park if coming home, drive off if leaving for work/other stuff, and get out and about to. Needs to work for everyone. When I was little we lived on a busier street and we just played inside one another's gardens.

Wang them a toffee and park up the road.
Children are people too, innit.

But seriously, I did some research about a hundred years ago, looking at how children's participation in customs such as May Day gave them a positive role to play in the life of their community. I found a couple of villages where, once schools had closed, nobody actually knew how many children lived there until they decided to revive their village May Days for the millennium. It seemed like a revolutionary idea then that there might be really easy (and quite cheap) ways to get children actively and positively living in their environments/communities, so I was really glad to read about the play-streets idea.
I've always supported Halloween and other customs locally - yes, it might be a pita to have to deal with the very few numbers of children who mess around and step outside the conventional rules of play or customary behaviour, but if we don't give young people an easy way to engage in their community we can't really complain when/if they seem to turn into shiftless and antisocial yoofs.

Now, where did I put those research notes...

I really would like to meet the nice kids over the age of 6 round here who play nicely.. they don't seem to exist.
The local toddlers are sweet but the older kids who used to play football etc would deliberately try to hit cars / cats / house walls / flowers / windows. If anyone complains they get the rocks out - encouraged by their Dads. :(
I was ok as i'd bribed the two 'ringleaders' with tons of sweets last Halloween.
One Saturday the Dads stuck a football net across the entrance to the street (half the residents are shift workers / young people with busy social lives / older people with elderly parents to visit). No-one could get in or out & tempers were flaring but the other residents were scared.
So i went over to the boys & said loudly (so the Dads could hear) - ''you would really enjoy playing football in the huge park down the road; there's an adventure playground; it would be really good fun if your Dads went too'' (big smile, pause and..) ''Daaaad, can we go to the park? Can you take us? Daaaddd..''
Pester power won & the Dads drove the boys there (it was just a 10 minute WALK away!). The boys were under age 9 - too young to safely go alone (gangs of youths & junkies in dark corners of the park sadly). They had a great time & every weekend one of the Dads has to take them out now.
It's different if there's no park nearby; but their parent(s) were clearly at home so no excuse not to take them.

A play out scheme just wouldn't work here - nowhere else for people to park, & everyone (including parents) has busy varied lives so wouldn't want to or be able to give up the street to the local mini thugs children for any amount of time. Especially when the children's parents are only doing housework / watching TV / drinking & can't be bothered to take them anywhere else.

PS i think what annoys me most is that i'd love to be a parent & these lazy men couldn't even be bothered to take their kids down the road - the poor lads actually had not ever been to the local park!

Sounds like there are a lot of kids in the UK who like deliberately damaging cars, and who frighten adults due to having parents who are agressive about them not being stopped from doing so, it sounds a strange situation and as if something needs addressing urgently - what are they going to be doing when they are older if they are throwing rocks (at people? Cats? Windows) at 6??? I don't doubt each poster's experience, but is it that this thread is drawing out a disproportionate number of people who live in a few areas, or is this really as common as it is sounding? I have to hope it isn't... Playing out and going out to indulge in vandalism aren't remotely the same thing at all... How has it got like this, and is it really a common thing? dundee does your research have answers?

The kids who play out near us are just kids, they do no harm, and the teens in the village are respectful, say hello to any adult they pass in the street etc. There are a few who smoke (not drink) in the playground late evening, have never seen them do it when there are adults or smaller children in the playground, and have asked them to pick up cigarette butts they've dropped before and they apologies and do. My 4 year old has been picked up and brought back to our door by a 13 year old who got to him before I did when he fell off his bike. The issue of a place for teens in the village is a real one, and whilst it is great for younger kids here as it is safe and normal to play out, the teens must be very bored... Normally they are seen walking up and down the street in 2s and 3s (in and out of each others houses I assume), but there is nothing remotely threatening about them.

We have a village festival every year dundee despite the fact the village is very tiny - it's organised by the volunteer fire fighters as a fund raiser - there is no "role" specifically for the kids though except to bounce on the bouncy castle and runa bout together, they all get excited when it is due to happen though...