Very young kids playing out alone on my parents estate.....

[northerner]

I grew up on a council estate, my parents still live there. We visited them yesterday, as we pulled up there was a group of 4 kids playing outside, alone, unsupervised. 2 of the buys were only 2, the others were 3 or 4. They all threw sticks at our car as we drove past.

Apparntly 1 of these 2 year olds is always out alone, often from 7am in his PJ's. Just wandering around. It's so wrong.

This is not a thread dising council estates btw, don't want a slanging match. I know it's not indicative of all council estate folk, there are some fab people who live there. Just not teh parents of these particular kids.

Moaningpaper, that may be true for you, but I take my children (weather permitting) to our local park every day after school, so they can run about/play football/play on the swings. I usually end of taking some of the neighbours children along with me too. I also sit with them in our front garden with a picnic rug on the ground and watch them play. Now the evenings are getting shorter, we'll probably end up playing Connect Four and cards.

And then we wonder why teenagers today are going about mob ruling! It's frightening - these babies are going to grow up with no sense of right or wrong poor things.

I don't think a child of 3 is capable of making safety judgements about cars. Moreover, little children just aren't visible enough to car drivers. I know that there are things that people stress about too much today - random child abductions etc. etc. but cars are a real danger. I can't believe that there are places in the UK where there are really so few cars around that safety isn't an issue.

i have this problem too where i have just moved to . not wishing to sound judgemental but there is family in the next street that has 7 children and thety do not "look " cared for iyswim. the oldest children are constantly swearing ,its disgusting and the younger ones , who dont go to school are allowed to play out in the day. they just walk around the streets in dirty clothes looking like lil tramps. there was one crying the other day sat in a pram, had been left by a 3/4 year old , and noone came for her for ages. the postman stopped and asked if she was alright then a child came and started pushing her around the streets again . noone could see them from where they lived and it shocks me that nothing happens to them. where as children like mine that are completely loved and worried about are the ones that end up having something horrible happen to them
sods law isnt it ???

the risk of getting hit by a car is what concerns me.its a far bigger threat to children than being abducted etc.i dont know,maybe these 3 year olds have road sense but it worries me seeing them out unsupervised.and little babies in pushchairs being pushed round by other children!dont get me wrong,sometimes dd1 likes to push dd2's pushchair but only when i am with her-i would never let her take her out alone