"Playing out" is it what it sounds like and do people really let 5yos do it?

[CountessDracula]

I have heard mention of this on several threads recently

Does it just mean letting kids play in the street or local area on their own?

There seem to be a lot of very young kids doing this! Is it normal?

In Montreal, lots of the streets have alleys behind, and the kids play out there. Most houses and flats have kitchens at the back, so if you're cooking you can keep an eye on the kids, and hear them in the summer. The alleys mean they can go into everyone's back gardens, but it's hard for them to leave.

There are normally some parents out, ime. And some parents put up barriers so cars can't drive through. It's a good setup.

my siblings and i did when we were kids. doubt id let mine, but it hasnt come up b/c:
theyre only 3, 2 and >1 so far
and ive moved to the country (dahhhhlink)

My two play outside. I live in a terraced house in London & they play with other children on the pavement. They ride their scooters/bikes up & down & a couple of us leave our front doors open & the children come & go.
All the children around here have grown up having to be careful of the roads from a very early age, so it is drilled into them that they don't go on the road & if their ball/bike/toy whatever falls into the road they always come & get an adult to help them.
This summer my son & his friend set up a little table & chairs and played battleships on the pavement. So many people stopped & chatted to them, it was lovely. Just like you feel it ought to be.

My DS's aged 3 and 5 play outside. We live in a quiet cul de sac with s few other under8's. i used to sit outside - got a great tan this year, but now sit inside and watch from window with front door open. They know the boundaries and are aware of cars ( to be fair everyone knows there are kids playingand drive very carefully). They love it and I think it is great for booys especially to get out in the fresh air. (FWIW - childrenare probably safer now than they werre 50yrs ago)

ds is 6, we live in a quiet cul de sac. there is no way in hell i would let him play out the front alone. I live a couple of miles from soham so saw the whole holly and jessica situation. It is so easy for kids to be picked up and put into cars, or to be hurt by someone they know. call me old-fashioned, i would rather have kids round to play so that i know they are safe.

how have you persuaded your children not to want to play outside Darkalleybongo

CD has seen this on a thread i posted and she was shocked, me too tbh that parenrs lets thier kids out.

my dd is rather good and she will accept it when i say she cant and ds says "when me 4, out play" "yes yes ds" we wont be here in 10mths in my head.

of course dd can throw a wobbly if she really wnats to go out, never thougth i'd say i love ti when its raining and the clocks going bakc is great.

my dh has a big problem with it. but he isnt here to listen to the moaning when it happens!

DS is 6.5 and has expressed no desire to play out on the street at all, but I guess it depends on your neighbourhood, I've never seen any kids playing out in our street or the adjoining one. DS is an only child so not influenced by older siblings either.

i let the kids play in my back garden or i do some bits in the garden and let him out occasionally. My dd is 20mths so has to be when she's asleep. He just understands that it isn't safe, so we go feed the ducks or visit the park.. It's not mosside where we live, nice rural village in suffolk

DAB
we go to feed the ducks as well as compensation and the neighbours kids look on in envy!

My two (6 and 9) play in the back garden. They don't play out because the road is too busy.

We do a fair bit of taking them out, for bike rides, to the park, to the swimming pool. Very few kids play out where we live.

As has been said on other similar threads, this all comes down to where you live. My 9 year old and 5 year old have played outside on an old piece of orchard with their nighbour most of this afternoon. I can see them from the window and they know what their rules are.
Obviously any parents makes a sensible decsion based on the place that they live and the type of child. Children need to develop their independence and to develop a sense of responsibility as they grow older.
Children need outdoor play far more than they need electronic gadgets. It does seem so sad that we have allowed cars and motorists to rule the way that children play.

RP, I don't think that motorists are the main issue here, although, of course sometimes they are, but I think it's more medias scaremongering that gets people more insecure, weird thing is, I ahve heard often enough that the Police actually thinks that now it's as safe to play out as it has been years ago when we were little, only back then if a Kid went missing it was a more local thing, not the whole media couverage that an incident gets now....meaning the problem has always existed and hasn't gotten worse, just that wea re more aware....!

mine have played out since the youngest was 4 - mainly in the summer going up and down the pavement on their scooters or bikes with a load of other children. But we live on cul-de-sac and they know they are not allowed to go past the last car (on the end towards the main road). I also make sure there's one adult outside with them (normally sitting in their front garden reading a book/paper).

Where I live (SE London) I can't remember ever seeing 5 year old children playing out with no parents around. I live on a busy road so it's a no no anyway on my street but even at 10 my goddaughter isn't allowed round the park on her own. It's not like when I was little, we opened the front door and shot off on our bikes and came back at tea time. I have friends in different regions (Scottish Highlands for example) where it is perfectly acceptable. It just isn't here. Most kids don't walk to school on their own either until secondary age or Year 6 of juniors.

I say playing out - but I mean being outside in our fenced garden, with me inside the house.

I am still amazed that the children at the school I teach at stay inside the school and don't just wander out the gate.

"playing out" can just be playing up and down the street or culde sac you live on, not necessarily up the woods and down the park.

Robinpud's said it already. If you live in a quiet bit and your kids are able to stick to strict boundaries then why not.

IN small towns, I used to play out and walk quite a long way to school and I see no reason at all why my own kids shouldn't do this sort of thing in our small town. It was fab to go off on bikes, down the rec, spend my bus money on sweets...

I've never understood the idea of a road being used as a playground. It seems such a bad idea somehow.

Like bicycles using the same roads as cars. Just incompatible.

mine play out

I get a book or sort out the front garden and watch them

they potter and say hello to all the old people

its rather lovely

Should say though we live right at the end of...not a cul de sac but...a road with just an alley-not many cars except residents and even them quite slow.

But playing out...its a way to feel at home in their neighbourhood, IMO. I did it, in inner London, so did dh in norwich...

We do feed the ducks also

God I wish more people would let their kids play out. Safety in numbers rather than all these trapped and whey faced kids being ferried around from one adult supervised activity to the next.

Rant over.

Mine played out under 5 - we lived on a quiet road, they knew to stick to the pavement and in any case usually played in either our or friends gardens and I would watch them the short distance to friends house. When older we lived in a cul-de-sac and played out all the time with loads of kids - it's part of growing up and such FUN!

SCC it's not about the road being used as a playground though is it....just because the Kids play out it doesn't mean they dis-obey basic safety rules

All the kids round by me play football on the road. It's extremely worrying when you're driving and I can never quite get my head around it. I just think it's not a proper venue for a football game and while worrying for drivers, must be quite irritating for the kids who have to stop their game every three minutes to let a car go past. I'm probably very narrow-minded.

SCC, no, I don't think you are actually, that would irritate me too, however, would the Kids have another place to play football in your area? We have a lil green in our square, so, that helps keep them off the nroad if we want them in view, and otherwise there is a big green right beside our road, but it's out of view because of the houserow infront of it, iykwim!

It doesn't so much irritate me, just worries me when I'm driving home. There is a park up the road but I can understand people not wanting to let their kids go up to the park and be out of sight of them. OTOH I find it a bit bizarre that they're more afraid of paedophiles in parks, than of cars running their child over, the latter situation being far more likely.

Zog - but when a 5 year old goes missing everyone screams "why were they out alone with no parent?".

I personally don't think a 5 year old has any sense about danger, road safety or wandering off and getting lost.

My 5 and 7 year olds don't play out but we are outside and very active all the time, the park, rugby lessons, walk to school, ride our bikes, walks in the woods, swimming, dancing etc etc. They're not indoors on the computer or watching tv 24/7. I realise it is safer in some areas than others for children to play out but where I live it isn't what most children do.