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.

me neither, i was playing with my mate in a park surrounded by flats when an old bloke came out asking us to get a paper from him, we both ran a mile, still feel sort of bad about that.

FWIW at my DS1's junior school the children can leave the building at the end of the day unsupervised.

They are not 6 of course. But some of them are not long 7. Many are picked up by parents or carers. Not all tho. And nobody checks if they are (which I think is fine actually, sorry if that's shocking).

DS1's best pal often walks to meet his mum at the nearby shops. Crosses one road and walks on his own for 5 mins. He's 9.

I like the sound of the OP's playground but maybe not for a 6yo... 7 or certainly 8-9 yes indeed.

Isn't it the norm for 7 year olds ot leav school with out any one checking if they are picked up? Genuinely interested.

We had one of these when I was growing up. I loved it, was very very good place to go with friends, we felt like we were being trusted to be on our own, in reality there were staff around and about and any time we needed anything were there straight away.
I wish we lived close enough for DD to use it, I had so much fun going there for years, climbing, playing tennis, art and crafts etc. Every kid should have an adventure playground close
I certainly would not feel bad for leaving dc alone, the staff will always be alert to kids leaving, and will 'encourage' them not to leave alone. We were stopped from leaving whenever we tried it, even though we technically were allowed to.

well I think so Lynette but get the feeling that some eg kerrymum are concerned at idea of kids walking out of somewhere on their own.

Sounds like a great idea. Tbh I don't do a lot of supervising at the park anyway - I childmind for younger siblings and friends and I tend to sit on a bench and knit and let them get on with it. I'm a great believer in kids having independence.

if i left my childnen in an area like this, I would sit by the entrance reading a book incase they needed me or went wandering. If there were tow entrances, I wouldn't be happy. I'd also be nervous while they were in there ( they are my babies) but I think it is important for them to gain independance and feedom.

It's a shame that 12 is the upper limit. It would be great for teenagers to have a suppervised place to hang out.

There is a statistical possiblity of being killed by having a lump of frozen piss from an aeroplane toilet land on your head. This doesn't make most people insist on their DC never venturing outside without a crash helmet on. Yes, there are bad people, and bad things sometimes happen. But mostly, bad things don't happen (KM and anyone else, this is not in any way to deny the bad things that sadly did happen to you) and there is a genuine major issue these days with a government sponsored mindset of awful fear and paranoia, that everyone else is either a peedofil, a terrorist, a teenage hoodie wearer who's going to stab you for looking at him/her or an immigrant. The government uses this fear to press for even more surveillance and state spying, and there seems to be very little exploration into the possibility that the amount of surveillance everyone is subjected to nowadays might be a contributing factor in antisocial behaviour ie that being watched all the time drives people nuts...

kerrymum, I think it might be fair to say that your perception of what is risky is slightly more heightened than other people's. (Just thinking back to my flight thread...)

well said madame z!

sounds fab to me. it's only like at the end of the school day where some children walk home by themselves and some get picked up by parents. the ones who are walking home by themselves leave and the ones who know they are being picked up wait for their parents. they don't just wonder off because they can ... usually.

it sounds amazing - I wish our local authority could afford this sort of thing. Here a new swing is a rare excitement!

6 to 12 was the age mentioned in the OP. Not sure when 4 - 7 has come from

Kerry you have said your son would run off like a shot if he saw something interesting. How do you stop him from doing this at home?

i don't know about kerrymum but in the back garden the gates to the front are always locked if ds is there unsupervised. front door is also always locked.

Ok, so people are in fact locking their houses so their children can't get out

I can understand why the idea of an open playground would be scary if this is the set up you have at home

What a brillian idea So of those peole who have access to it.

no i lock my front door so burglars can't get in.

fwiw i know many 3 year olds who play out unsupervised and manage to not wander off so even though i don't where the ages 4-7 came from i don't think it would be a huge problem if that was the age it was designed for.

rt, where is this wonderful place, i need to move

I'd love to know where these playgrounds are. Certainly not in my local borough, were funding for youth programmes and services is sorely lacking.
I would certainly be using them as an opportunity for providing measured and reasonable independence.

I would love to have that near us.
There has to be a transition at some point between the constant supervision required by very young children, to a young person taking responsibility for themselves, and this would surely help. My dds (at 7 and 8) would love to feel they were being trusted to play without me around, and I know they are sensible enough not to wander off/ leave with anyone who isn't me.