Adventure playgrounds and leaving children without their parents

[ReallyTired]

Our local authority has 4 adventure playgrounds. They are fenced and run by playworkers. They have fanastic facilites, appartus for climbing, painting activites, lots of toys, dens to play in and programme of activites for the children in the school holidays.

It is completely free and you can leave your children there to be looked after by playworkers provided they are between the ages of 6 and 12. The idea is that the children can gain in independence and get the advantages of playing out on the street without the dangers.

I think its brilliant, but a friend of mine accused me of being a bad parent. She thinks its child neglet not to stay with your child even if the child is 12 years old because the children are able to walk out the playground if they choose to.

My son loves playing with his friends and I think its better for him than watching TV. He is six years old, but a very sensible 6 year old. I am confident that I trust him not to leave the playground without me.

Where is this wonderful adventure playground btw?

I know a child who managed to walk out of a school and along the road a few years ago.

I do know that my lads (all older now anyway) would have stayed within the park confines until I/we returned.

I guess if I had a child who I wasn't sure about I'd think twice, or let them play in the playground whilst I observed from a distance.

KM when my eldest dd was at Primary School there were no playground supervisors and no physical measures to stop her from wandering out of the playground at lunchtime. It didn't mean she left though.

the majority of children, even 5 year olds aren't daft enough to just wander off.

I think the playworkers would try and stop my son leaving as they know he is six years old. However it is a large playground and there are only 5 playworkers. The playground is not locked and it might be possible for him to sneak out.

I checked on my son every hour much to his annoyance. He felt I was treating him like a baby.

lol hopefully the playworkers are trained to report anyone that's luring.

open play areas are designed to have a free to leave/stay policy. i only work with closed schemes, where we lock ourselves in half the time .

I take it you're shocked that there weren't any playground supervisors KM rather than the fact my dd didn't leave the school
It was a long time ago. But at my son's Primary School now children are allowed to leave school at lunchtime to go home. My ds does regularly.

southeastastra - do you think so? I bet here are still a fair nmber of 5y who do wander off and get "lost" for a little bit at times. Or could become distracted by older children and go off with them, or be lured by something exciting at the other side of the park, etc.

Maybe my DD just isn;t that streetwise yet - but I can live with that. It doesn't seem to be stopping her enjoying herself or hamering her development or independence TBH.

I think a bigger danger of him being lured by his mates rather than nasty adults. Children are more likely to be killed by their own sillyness than murdered. Its scary being a parent and knowing when to let go.

Goodness our parents never had these worries. At my son's age I had unbelievable freedom. My next door neighbour had her sons walking to school at four years old.

i think they're more designed for older children though as i said earlier, the ones that wander the streets looking for somewhere to just hang out.

ReallyTired - I think our parents probably did to an extent. I know I wasn't allowed to play out on the streets or walk to school myself, or go out on my bike alone until I was well into middle school age - so about 10y, and then I had curfews and had to check in every so often.

KM. It has changed now. I think they brought it in after dd had been there for a couple of years. I must say that I was glad when they did though.

It deptends what you mean by 'wandering the streets' and 'unsupervised'. My children have been allowed out to play on their own since about 5. However we lived in small, quiet cul de sacs. They always had to tell me where they were going to be, i.e. if they were going to go to a friends house etc. They were only allowed in a certain fairly small area. They had to check in regularly and I had to know who they were with, etc, etc. Also, I would go and check on them every so often (without them knowing).
Once they got older and more sensible (and tbh they all were pretty sensible) they were allowed more freedom.
Yes, it was difficult to let them do that and yes, there were dangers albeit imo small ones. But I felt it would be crueller to lock them away and not let them have any freedom.

Statistically kids are at far greater risk of abuse from their parents, careworkers and teachers than from random strangers. And there is much more risk of them getting run over than of them being sexually abused by anyone (ie far more kids are run over than are assaulted).

Surely a child is safer in a supervised adventure playground than cul de sacs. I checked on my son at least every 30 to 50 minutes. Unlike a cul de sac cars are not allowed to drive through an adventure playground.

I don't live in a cul de sac and I think children who live on busy roads need freedom as well.

The playground is OFSTED registered, and children are supervised. I fail to see how my son playing at the adventure playground is any worst than bogwobbit children playing in their cul de sac.

I think KerryMum's comment is unfair.

Nt here KerryMum, and I was allowed to play out from the age of 6 onwards, but mybe I'm just lucky?