Kids playing outside in Bay Area (schools, living, move to)

[aslowdodge]

Originally Posted by thatkindafamily

A perfect neighborhood where kids play outside is where we live - in Dublin! Dublin is one of the most prestigious, exclusive and expensive places in the entire Bay Area. We moved here 3 years back. You will find a lot of diversity here. Ton of celebrations every month where you will learn about Indian culture, Indian holidays, etc. If you are lucky, an Indian family will befriend you & invite you to celebrate Indian holidays. I cannot tell you what an amazing life we have had since the last 4 years. Agreed, there is no caucasian families in the community where I live, there is only Asians, but hey this is the Bay Area! No matter where you go here you will find this kind of diversity which is what makes it so special!

How is having all Asians diverse? You make it sound like the goal is to have an Indian family become friends with you.
As far as Dublin being one of the most prestigious, exclusive, and expensive places in the entire Bay Area, that is false. Dublin has long been known as the blue collar part of the tri Valley.

[CorporateCowboy]

Originally Posted by damiena

SF not really a kid feiendly place..

No large city is. The thread was referring to the Bay Area as a whole.

[Shelacious]

Check out Alameda (especially Bay Farm) and San Leandro-- they're both small, flat cities with tons of families. I have friends in both of those cities with teens/pre-teens, and their kids (boys) are out all the time on their own around the neighborhood. I would think neighborhoods like Redwood Heights, Maxwell Park, and Rockridge also have some kids wandering around, maybe with an adult within shouting proximity. Certainly not the Oakland Hills/Montclair. I think there are a lot of reasons that kids aren't playing unsupervised outside like I did when I was a kid-- neighborhood kids not attending neighborhood schools, screen-time/video games, dual working parents, scheduled after school/weekend activities, proximity of parks/recreational activities to the home, cultural differences, safety concerns (including reckless/distracted drivers).

[ryanthegoldengod]

My time growing up was filled with playing whiffleball, basketball, Nerf football, sledding, snowball fights, jumping off our garage roof into giant snowpiles, riding my bike all over town, throwing baseballs against the tree in my backyard, roaming through the woods, keg parties in the woods........

But I grew up in the 80's.

I think there's a lot less of that now. That was the latch key generation. Now letting kids play outside unsupervised is considered shocking parental neglect it seems--even though may of the parents of today were the latch key kids of yesterday. But every generation corrects the real or perceived mistakes of the last generation. Often they over correct. And today's helicopter parenting is probably a case of over correction.

Of course do kids today care? We didn't have Playstation 4, Facebook, Instagram, Netflix....... Has technology kept kids indoors?

[CorporateCowboy]

Originally Posted by ryanthegoldengod

My time growing up was filled with playing whiffleball, basketball, Nerf football, sledding, snowball fights, jumping off our garage roof into giant snowpiles, riding my bike all over town, throwing baseballs against the tree in my backyard, roaming through the woods, keg parties in the woods........

But I grew up in the 80's.

I think there's a lot less of that now. That was the latch key generation. Now letting kids play outside unsupervised is considered shocking parental neglect it seems--even though may of the parents of today were the latch key kids of yesterday. But every generation corrects the real or perceived mistakes of the last generation. Often they over correct. And today's helicopter parenting is probably a case of over correction.

Of course do kids today care? We didn't have Playstation 4, Facebook, Instagram, Netflix....... Has technology kept kids indoors?

But the issues pertaining to societal change (and fear among parents) are not confined to kids playing outside in the Bay Area.

[ryanthegoldengod]

Originally Posted by CorporateCowboy

But the issues pertaining to societal change (and fear among parents) are not confined to kids playing outside in the Bay Area.

I know. That's what I was trying to say.

[jade408]

I don’t see kids playing outside often, but I do see the. running around Rockridge and Piedmont Ave getting boba, ice cream and other stuff. I saw some ore-teens yesterday on the bus. They were olaying a game with some friends - who will get there first.

All of my parent friends seem to have more playdates and fewer unstructured llay outside moments.

[thatkindafamily]

Originally Posted by mr_california

When driving through Dublin, I rarely see kids outside. Are there certain area's (West Dublin vs. East Dublin) that have more kids?

Kids in Dublin never play outside, at least where I live in East Dublin. That has been a hot topic of discussion since the last year. Most kids are either playing in park or in backyard. The culture of playing on the streets is not there here which is kind of sad but true

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by thatkindafamily

Kids in Dublin never play outside, at least where I live in East Dublin. That has been a hot topic of discussion since the last year. Most kids are either playing in park or in backyard. The culture of playing on the streets is not there here which is kind of sad but true

Playing in a park or backyard IS playing outside. I think the OP meant--playing outside, around the neighborhood (vs. backyards), but the local park would also fit that definition of "playing outside".

[Eli34]

I grew up in a small city in Canada, and I observed the same trend. I grew up in the late 80's/early 90's and I remember playing outside with my friends, but as the 90's progressed, I noticed less and less kids playing outside. I think it was all the paranoia hyped in the media about pedophiles and kidnappings during the 90's, even though those cases are extremely rare. I also grew up in the inner city, where there was more parks, green spaces and walkable neighborhoods. I literally had 3 parks that were blocks from me where I would hang out with my friends and we were between the ages of 7 to 12 without any parent supervision. I would just walk over to there houses, and knock on the door and asked if they could play outside. And yes, we got in trouble...but that's a normal part of growing up.
Best childhood ever. I feel sorry for kids these days.