Do you have a garden? Do your Dc's manage without one?

[Flllightattendant]

As an upshot of my thread about moving I am now focussing on the impact of not having a garden for a few years.

Two sons, 4 and a half, and 7 months, and a cat.

We have a biggish garden which is unkempt and has space for a swing and playhouse, a few small trees etc. It gets used somewhat but is a pain to maintain (even minimally!) and we don't spend a lot of time out there - access is through a manky old conservatory, which is pretty dangerous if unsupervised, so I have to play with boy if he is out there. I can't just leave him to it.

Potential new place has a small courtyard type garden. It is enclosed and safe at a glance, I could easily watch from the kitchen, but it is paved (I may be able to lay a bit of turf) nd though there is room for the playhouse, the swing would have to be left. It wouldn't be hugely missed as far as I can tell.

There is a big road out the front, but a proper playground round the corner - again I'd have to supervise. I don't know what the boys will need as they get bigger - would it be better to hold out for a place where the older one can play in the street, even though he is only 4.5? Or do you think he will be Ok with a trip to the swings a few times a week?

He is at school now anyway so too tired for much else. I am thinking of living there for about 2/3 years probably.

How do your children manage, if you don't have a garden?

Can't really advise on the 'as they get older' part, as my eldest is 3 and a half. However, we have recently moved from a street with no potential for playing 'on the street' to one where you can, and it is fantastic. The mums all stand outside and chat, and the kids ride up and down on trikes, bikes and scooters. In the summer, they were frequently out until 8pm playing. We have a decent sized back garden with lots of play equipment, and although this was played with in the last house, it is virtually ignored here, with DS1 preferring to play 'out front'. We have a big park across the road, and a playpark nearby, and they do enjoy visiting these, but I think if it was a toss up between a visit to one of those with just DH and I, or playing with his friends, he'd choose his friends every time. We are lucky though - we live in a quiet cul-de-sac type road, with lots of kids of similar ages.

Oh I am so Laura!!!

I wish we could find a place like that. It doesn't seem to exist here. There was one house we almost got that was in a cul de sac, next to a field - I think there were a few kids - but we didn't get it.

Where we are there aren't many children either, and there's still a road. I guess I'm hoping we find somewhere better one day but this would be 'for now'.

Can't answer for you situation really but we did the opposite. We had a small paved garden - which does have huge plus points. Like all year round access with no muddy mess to play ball, great for riding bikes, trikes and scooters, can use paddling pool etc etc. You could subsidise with trips to the park for 1/2 hour every so often. But They will have their playhouse.

But when ds was 4 1/2 we moved to a huge garden which has a slide (unused) and a trampoline.

Children are very adaptable and will just get on with what they've got. both have the positives and a small paved garden with a nearby park is not as bad a s it sounds.

Yes, furball sounds right. They get used to whatever they have. In our last house the garden equipment was well used. In this house ignored. We don't go to a playpark much here, in our last house we went at least weekly, if not more often. They will be fine, esp the baby

The playing out on the street thing is probably so dependent on having a really quiet street (ours can go on the road with no real danger as long as there's a mum watching for cars), and similar aged children, so you might not get it in 100 different houses.

A small paved garden would be better than our medium sized steep muddy garden!At least your dc's can ride bikes around ect.

In old house we had huge garden but too steep to be used unsupervised and also only accessible through basement so had to be taken down there iyswim. This place we have large roof terrace which they use much more but we live very close to common for run arounds and using bikes etc. Kids don't seem to care much - never heard them complaining or envying other people's gardens but then oldest is only 4.