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My kid can't ride a bike at age 5, though I learned at 3. Can't figure out what is taking so long.
We don't let them play in the front yard because we live on a very busy road and the front yard is only a tiny strip of grass. They can play in the back and side yard though. If we lived on a cup-de-sac or less traveled road, there would be no issue with playing out front.
My kid can't ride a bike at age 5, though I learned at 3. Can't figure out what is taking so long.
We don't let them play in the front yard because we live on a very busy road and the front yard is only a tiny strip of grass. They can play in the back and side yard though. If we lived on a cup-de-sac or less traveled road, there would be no issue with playing out front.
Cars are my only real worry, if we lived on a busy road I'd have different rules for my kid, but we're lucky as the only people that drive on our road are those that live here so they know that kids are playing out, plus there's speed bumps on all the roads leading to our road and a very low speed limit. The train tracks and the main road are nearby though, so the kids aren't allowed to venture that far. I think next summer though I'll expand the limits to include down the road to the school playgrounds and give my kid a cheap mobile phone.
Not in the street, in your front yard without a parent watching them every single second? This poll applies to parents with children 5 and up.
It depends on the neighborhood. If you're in a quiet subdivision with trimmed lawns, that's one thing. But if you're in the 'hood, that's something else.
We did not let ours play out front - but the main reason is that we are on the MAIN ROAD of our subdivision and there is constant traffic from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. every single day.
Had we lived on a cul-de-sac, then absolutely I would have let them run around the front yard all they wanted. Unsupervised? Maybe once they were 7-8 years old. But not 4-5 years old.
My 6 year old is smart and responsible, and I don't think anything bad would happen to her if she played out in the front for a while without me right there.
However, I'm completely sure that if I let her play out there without me visibly supervising, that I will be getting a visit from CPS. I'm not worried about kidnappers, I'm worried about busybodies and government workers who are forced by society to play cover-your-a** to the extreme.
People find joy in accusing parents of being bad parents, whether or not they really are. It's like a new reality TV show, it's crazy.
No, we always lived too close to a street for me to do that. I wasn't allowed out front by myself at that age either; we did not live in a good neighborhood. There is a house a few blocks from me where I have seen young children of five or six playing by themselves on the sidewalk. I'm always kind of startled, but sometimes there is an adult with another child on the side yard (it's a corner house). Other times the children are outside alone. It's not a busy street but I would not feel comfortable.
A few years ago, we spotted a little boy of about three playing in a yard outside a church. This was a trafficky corner, where my neighborhood meets a busy road. His toddler car-thing was on the sidewalk, but it wasn't obvious what house was his, and there was no one around. I got him to tell me where he lived (across the street), so I walked him back and knocked on the door. His parents took several minutes to get to the door and were completely unfazed.
Why only 5 and up? I let my kid play out, she's 4 and plays all around our area - her limits are our row of houses and the next row, the park across the road and the pavement stretch along the road, which is about a couple hundred metres long - the kids ride their bikes and scooters up and down that stretch of pavement and play in the park, the communal gardens in the front of each row of houses and each other's back gardens. There's a whole bunch of them that play out, the youngest is around 2 years old.
Nice to see that Finland hasn't degenerated into fear. This sounds exactly like it was in my hometown in Ohio back in the 1960's. It was a golden age to be a kid!
Nice to see that Finland hasn't degenerated into fear. This sounds exactly like it was in my hometown in Ohio back in the 1960's. It was a golden age to be a kid!
The golden age continues here I actually was discussing the kids playing outside and what limits my kid has, with my family support worker who is a social worker that works closely with CPS - she was not concerned at all, and seemed to think it was very nice actually. Didn't bat an eyelid at random children walking in and out of my house either. Such a great place to be a kid, which is why I'm willing to pay far too expensive rent for this house - its worth the cost!
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I actually was discussing the kids playing outside and what limits my kid has, with my family support worker who is a social worker that works closely with CPS - she was not concerned at all, and seemed to think it was very nice actually. Didn't bat an eyelid at random children walking in and out of my house either. Such a great place to be a kid, which is why I'm willing to pay far too expensive rent for this house - its worth the cost! 
