Playing out

[Redwinestillfine]

What age did your kids start playing out and what safeguards did you have in place? If they don't play out, why not?

I'll go. My oldest is a relatively sensible 8. She doesn't play out but kids on our street do. Some are a lot younger than her, but a fair few look older. I like the idea, but, Corona virus aside, am not comfortable. Firstly the kids I do see whizz around on bikes in the road. They all seem to have mobiles and seem to be constantly on them. Dd isn't getting a phone for a while and I wouldn't want her to have unsupervised access to someone else's. They also seem to be out all hours. If know it's summer and light but I know if I start letting her out she'd want to do it every day and we would have a daily battle over her coming in at a reasonable time. I don't know most of the families either although most go to her school. The main thing is that I wouldn't have eyes on her and yes the worry that something would happen.. I know it's irrational, and that's on me, but I would worry. Full disclosure I used to constantly play out as a kid. Is there a sensible way to do this? WhatsApp group with the other parents/ rota for who is watching/ rules? Or do you just let yours go free range?

Depends on the road. And how you can see. For instance when I was little we lived in a cul-de-sac. Our house was on the corner so a glance out the window could see the whole street. Plus no cars. Also older ones who could get help if a younger one needed it. In these situations I'd let a sensible 5yo out.
Our street is just a normal road so often has cars. I can only see directly out my window rather than drown the street. And there aren't loads of kids out generally. At this point I'd say 8ish.

1. Supervised initially, by 8 unsupervised but only allowed as far as his friends in the next street (our streets are all off a big playing field). Had to check in every 30 minutes, gradually extended as he got older. I should add, lots of his friends/parents are neighbours so there was always someone keeping an eye.

Now aged 11 he has a radius of about a mile as he often goes cycling with friends.