What age do you let your child play "out front" and run with neighbor kids?

[staceyobu]

Just curious. My kids have free reign in our back yard, but I really don't let them play in the front at all. I know my younger two are too young, but at what age should I give my oldest a little more freedom?

[Dobela]

I started around age 5 with my son but I always had a door open or was sitting by the windows so I could carefully observe everything happening. I also limited the time of play to 30 minutes or so.

[Samiam]

In the neighborhoods where we have lived, the children are all out in the front.

 

DS was about 4 when he started to want to go out and play with the children. He was only allowed to if DH or I could go out as well.

 

When he was six, we started letting him go out and play by himself. We lived in a cul-de-sac, gated community, so it was a little bit of security, but I still checked on him every 10-15 minutes cuz it made me nervous. Also depending on which neighborhood children were out, because we had a family of brothers that were very naughty and just plain mean. If they were out, I stayed out because they knew not to mess with my child if I was sitting there (I didn't mind correcting them, and they knew that). But DS loves to be outside, playing with his friends, and would stay out all day if he could.

 

(I'm mainly talking about middle DS here, as older DS was already 7 by the time we moved to an area with children around, and younger DS is just four, so he's just at this age now)

[Joanne]

School aged, and with at least one other person (sibling or friend).

[WeeBeaks]

My oldest was 7. They had to stay in the cul-de-sac with their friends. Our cul-de-sac is small and we know all the families (the other kids' parents also live here). So everyone keeps watch.

[Paintedlady]

I think they were 7 & 8 when I really let them go down the street, around the block, etc...

[dragons in the flower bed]

Six, five, seven, and not yet. Our kids have developed at different rates. My youngest, generally a sweetheart, is having a hard time with backyard rules. I wonder if he'll be another seven.

[stripe]

I have to say, I've had disappointing experiences with other kids misbehaving, getting violent, losing their temper, and so on.

[ReneTL]

My girls began playing out front together when they were about 5 & 7. I would watch carefully from the window.

[SailorMom]

Mine were 7 and 8 - with me checking on them unobtrusively every 15 minutes. They were only allowed to stay in sight of our front door, and could not go into a friend's house without asking me first.

[AngieW in Texas]

At 8yo, my kids could go out front and be within 3 houses of our house on either side of the street whether alone or with a friend or sister.

 

At 12yo, my kids can go as far as the park (about 1/4 mile) as long as somebody else is going too.

 

At 14yo, my kids can go to the park alone.

[Tess in the Burbs]

it has nothing to do with age for us. We just moved this summer and they are frustrated by the new rules.

 

Our house had lots of kids on the street. Usually a teen was outside as well. So this year they could play outside with friends as long as they told me if they were going to someone's house...otherwise I had to be able to see them on the street at all times. They would be outside for hours.

 

Now we are in a new neighborhood where no one has said hello or smiled when we see them outside. We rarely see anyone outside. It's a busy street so they can't ride bikes in the street even with me watching. Too fast cars for them to get out of the way. Instead we are going to the local park as a family. It's not in viewing site so either I go with or they don't get to do. Until I know more people and the area it's in my view.

 

If in the future we get to know people I may consider outside time without me again but for now the new situation deems it necessary to have me with them.

 

so it's not age for us that decides....it's how comfortable I am with the situation

[shannatheshedevil]

5, but we live at the end of a quiet street on a military base. I leave the doors open (storm doors shut) and open the blinds. He is only allowed to go to two people's houses and I can see both of them from my door (plus, I know the parents).

[Parrothead]

Dd was 3, but we lived in an apartment complex. Our front door open to the quad so it wasn't like she was playing in traffic or anything. The sprinkler system would go off and she and her little friend, also 3, would play in the water or use the volley ball sand to play. They also rode their bikes on hte sidewalk around the grass area.

 

Most likely I would have not let her out alone so young if we were any place else.

[RobinF]

We just this year let our 10 and 8 year old start riding their bikes down the street by themselves. We will let all four play outside but I either sit outside with them or keep the front door open and spend lots of time go back and forth (while I am doing laundry or cleaning the kitchen type things).

 

We live in a very safe neighborhood and know all the parents and the kids. We still don't let our boys "run" with the other kids in the neighborhood. They can go out and play basketball or football with them in our cul de sac but if the other boys are going to someone else's house down the block our boys stay here.

[Old Dominion Heather]

About 3 or 4, I think. We live on a dead end street, so no through traffic. I also let them play/ride bikes in the street without me when they are about six, but I like I said, it is a short, dead end street. Only my oldest is allowed to go off the street alone and he started that at 10 years, I think.

[NanceXToo]

My daughter was 8 when I started letting her do that, but she had to stay within a certain number of houses etc. This year, at age 9, she's allowed to go up and down our whole block.

 

The rules are, she can't go off of our block.

 

She can't play or go into the street.

 

She can't be out front unless she's with friends (not alone).

 

And if she's going to go somewhere else, like in a neighbor friend's house or backyard, she has to come let me know, so I know where she'll be at all times.

 

She's been asking lately if she can go "around the block" with her friends, who, at 9 and 10, just started being allowed to do that this year. I told her maybe next spring/summer. We'll have to think about it!

 

ETA: My 4 year old (will be 5 in about three months) is still not allowed to play out front without an adult, not even with his sister. He's allowed to play in the backyard with his sister/cousins, or in a cousin's/friend's backyard if he's with his sister or someone else is watching him, but I won't trust him out front yet, not to go too far or to step into the street or to talk to strangers and so on.

Edited August 6, 2010 by NanceXToo

[Laura Corin]

Unsupervised? When they can cross the road safely. Both my boys have free rein now - Hobbes disappears into neighbouring (public-access) woods for hours on end.

 

Laura

[nd293]

Mine is 9yrs and I wouldn't let her play out front unsupervised.

[4kids4me]

My youngest, at 5, is allowed in the front, but only if there's a sibling there. My next oldest, at 7, is allowed to cross the street and go up and down the street and play with friends.

[rafiki]

.

[hornblower]

my kids have never done this

[JWSJ]

If we lived on a farm or in a rural area, my ds would have free rein.

 

But, we live in a city with a registered sex offender just across the street.

 

So, he can only go so far until we move.

[lisamarie]

My kids play in the front yard almost exclusively at ages 2, 5, and 6. The rules are different for each kid. My 6 yr old can ride his bike/scooter in the road but only on the part of the road (no sidewalks in our subdivision) I can see from the, house so about 3 houses in each direction. DD5 just started being allowed to play in the street this summer. DD2 is not allowed out of our yard unless DH or I are there watching her. If she goes into the street, she has to come into the house.

 

My older kids are allowed to play outside by themselves, but my youngest is not unless I have the time to sit and watch her through the window at all times. She's just not reliable yet.

 

We only recently got new next door neighbors who have kids so now my kids play in their yard as well. I'm still getting used to this, but I'm not stopping it. My kids are so desperate to have other kids to play with on a daily basis that they practically pounce on the neighbor boys whenever they see them come outside.

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

No kids on our street play out front unless an adult is out there for some reason, so my kids have never even asked. Our neighbor kids will come over to our backyard or my kids will ask to go over to one of the neighbor's back yards. Just last week, they wanted to stand out in the front to watch someone painting the neighbor's house, so I let them. I just told them I had to be able to see them if I looked out the window. If they wanted to ride their bikes, (which neither kid ever wants to do! That's a whole other post!), I would at these ages (6 & 7) let them ride up and down our little block, and maybe around the block when they are 9 & 10.

[lailasmum]

For my dd it was around her 6th birthday but she doesn't go far. Her friend in the street lives 2 doors down and they walk to there and back on their own. We live in a cul de sac surrounded by fields and any traffic is pretty slow and will be our neighbours parking up or leaving their drives so there is no trough traffic, they all know that kids play in the road. The girls ride their bikes up and down the road occasionally which is very short but they don't leave the road on their own.

Edited August 7, 2010 by lailasmum

[Scuff]

I think it'll depend on area. I'm probably considered overprotective, but we live in a bad area. In a better neighborhood I'd allow them more freedom.

[anotherbrother]

I let my 5 yo out if he's with one of his older brothers. He really wants to be able to go out alone or with one of the neighbor kids but I'm not really comfortable with that. We live in a circular neighborhood with 14 sets of duplexes and they like to ride their bikes around the circle. I was okay with my middle son doing that when we moved here two years ago. He was 6 1/2.

 

I think I might be more strict if we had a backyard, but the front common lawn is the only place to play besides riding their bikes.

[joannqn]

I went from very protective (never outside without me) to giving them more freedom in the last two years.

 

Last year, the older kids were allowed to go outside and play with the neighborhood kids at the ages of 7 and 9. Usually they are in one of the neighbors' yards. We live in the middle of the block. The neighbors live two doors down on the corner and across the street from that neighbor on the street intersection mine. I can't see them from my house, but I can usually hear them.

 

This year, I've allowed my three year old to go with them. He does not go into the street alone, doesn't leave the yard they are in, and listens to his older siblings very well. He knows he will have to come home if he breaks these rules, and he's only broken them once at the beginning of summer.

 

There are as many as 11 kids playing together so I feel safer than if it were just my kids. Plus all of the parents are generally keeping an eye out.

 

I've let my older two walk 2 blocks away to a friends house and 3 blocks away to the school playground with other friends and a cell phone or walkie-talkie.

[Farrar]

In the backyard (which is fenced) - 3. In the front - 4. And now at 5 I let them stay on the block, though they don't really feel comfortable taking advantage of that usually and aren't friends with the neighborhood kids... actually not totally sure how to remedy this or whether I want to... sigh.