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Child Item

When are kids old enough to play outside alone?

RonanP77

Our kid is three and a half, we live in the ass hole of nowhere with a big garden, a big gate and a hedge the whole way around the outside. I was thinking of letting them play outside alone this summer, just keeping watch out the window a pop out every now and again.

Do the good people of AH think three and a half is a little young or should it be OK?

There are probably forums for questions about kids but they'll be packed with so called experts that want us to wrap kids in cotton wool until they're 21.

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darkpagandeath

anncoates wrote: »

A secret message smuggled to the surface from the Internet outrage mines. Many toilers died to make sure it arrived in one piece.

Nah your mistaking me with the wrong kind of outrage, I'm sick of 2 yearolds running around on the roads, Around housing estates as if they own the place. And the smug parents saying it's their right to do so as roads are playgrounds.

Jaxxy

darkpagandeath wrote: »

Nah your mistaking me with the wrong kind of outrage, I'm sick of 2 yearolds running around on the roads, Around housing estates as if they own the place. And the smug parents saying it's their right to do so as roads are playgrounds.

OP doesn't live on an estate.

suicide_circus

Do you have many unidentified men in white vans driving around the area?

RonanP77

suicide_circus wrote:

Do you have many unidentified men in white vans driving around the area?

It's not a road that's really used by people unless they live on it. The back lawn can't be seen from the road anyway, it's too sheltered. Do all dodgy types drive white vans?

hoodwinked

as said if it's a secured back garden, just let them off but keep an eye on them, you could even hover and watch from the house at first (to a: get a feel for what your child will do, and b: to help yourself let go), then if you are confident in their behaviour when you aren't around start checking on them frequently....

Turtyturd

Make sure they have credit in their phone and they will be fine.

colossus-x

When they start getting on your nerves.

c_man

I visited a cousin at the weekend. He's around the same age as me, though now has a missus, kids and house in the country (literally a minute down the road from his parents, and a minute further from my Granny's). He was saying how much better it is for kids in the countryside compared with the citylife (referring to me growing up in Galway :pac: ).

I couldn't disagree more, seeing the kids essentially cooped up in the bounds of the fence around the house and garden. Small road with cars regularly bombing down it just outside the gates. I grew up in an estate and was regularly 'out' unsupervised during the day with all the neighbourhood kids from a young age. We had a big enough green area in front of our street, lots of estates and other kids around and playgrounds within cycling distance (Christ we cycled everywhere!).

I hate to hear of these kids being driven from/to everywhere, never out of sight, playing endlessly on a console or just indoors. Let your kids out for gods sake!

anncoates

c_man wrote: »

I visited a cousin at the weekend. He's around the same age as me, though now has a missus, kids and house in the country (literally a minute down the road from his parents, and a minute further from my Granny's). He was saying how much better it is for kids in the countryside compared with the citylife (referring to me growing up in Galway :pac: ). !

Wouldn't knock it exactly as what's the perfect childhood? My wife, however, grew up in quite an isolated country area and always complains that it was like a childhood of chauffeured play dates. Our kids are the same now as my childhood: on a small suburban estate with plenty of green space and all spring and summer, it's basically a little mob of about 20 odd kids, in and out of each other's houses and hanging out together. I think I prefer that.

Mint Aero

c_man wrote: »

I visited a cousin at the weekend. He's around the same age as me, though now has a missus, kids and house in the country (literally a minute down the road from his parents, and a minute further from my Granny's). He was saying how much better it is for kids in the countryside compared with the citylife (referring to me growing up in Galway :pac: ).

I couldn't disagree more, seeing the kids essentially cooped up in the bounds of the fence around the house and garden. Small road with cars regularly bombing down it just outside the gates. I grew up in an estate and was regularly 'out' unsupervised during the day with all the neighbourhood kids from a young age. We had a big enough green area in front of our street, lots of estates and other kids around and playgrounds within cycling distance (Christ we cycled everywhere!).

I hate to hear of these kids being driven from/to everywhere, never out of sight, playing endlessly on a console or just indoors. Let your kids out for gods sake!

Wow an ol' townie taking my culchie upbringing and turning it on its head. How big was that patch of green area? Cos mine was 14 miles. That's how far we'd cycle and the amount of stuff and places to explore within that radius of country life far surpasses any man made recreational facility of a town. Ya've the wrong idea of country life buddy.

crybaby

At that age I would probably sit out in the garden and keep an eye on him from there but then again I'm a panicking parent and my two year old will climb on anything

Robsweezie

They would have to be street wise, have their wits about them and know all about stranger danger etc. I would say 8 or 9. But then again a younger age might toughen them up.

(Sorry you mean a garden and not an estate, just keep an eager eye and ear on them)

RonanP77

Both my wife and I grew up in the country, we tried living in a housing estate when we got married but it drove me crazy. We moved back to the country 5 years ago. Our garden is a lot bigger than the green area in that eatate. We decided we didn't want any kids we had running around in traffic either.

Being confined within the boundaries of the garden isn't so bad when it's a full acre. Kids have a big area of concrete around the house for bikes or scooters, a big swing set and I've got over 70 trees planted that will be big enough for climbing and playing around in a few years.

As for bikes, we would've thought nothing of cycling 40k or more every day over the spring and summer. We had miles of fields to walk through, an orchard only 5 minutes walk from the house. I loved growing up in the country and would imagine our kid/kids will be the same.

I was thinking that at three and a half, it's probably time for a bike with stabilisers too, I can get a good one for â‚¬20 off a buddy.

Egginacup

RonanP77 wrote: »

Our kid is three and a half, we live in the ass hole of nowhere with a big garden, a big gate and a hedge the whole way around the outside. I was thinking of letting them play outside alone this summer, just keeping watch out the window a pop out every now and again.

Do the good people of AH think three and a half is a little young or should it be OK?

There are probably forums for questions about kids but they'll be packed with so called experts that want us to wrap kids in cotton wool until they're 21.

As long as there's no water like a stream or pond or a bog then I'd say let him loose. Worst things that will happen will be cuts, scratches and insect bites...which he's going to get all his life anyway.

BeerWolf

I was going out cycling to the park when I was 6, parents today are now so paranoid... even though there's a lot of a safety net out there with technology today than back then.

Egginacup

darkpagandeath wrote: »

Eh, When did it become OK to leave children unsupervised at any age ? especially below 6.

Oh boy!
I think you'll find that giving children the freedom to explore and develop independence, confidence and critical thinking skills will stand them in excellent stead throughout their lives. Unless of course you want to raise a litter of insecure, immature kids incapable of thinking for themselves and terrified of their own shadows.

RonanP77

Egginacup wrote:

As long as there's no water like a stream or pond or a bog then I'd say let him loose. Worst things that will happen will be cuts, scratches and insect bites...which he's going to get all his life anyway.

There's a bog down the bottom of the back garden and a drain/stream between us and it. The garden is separated from the lawns with a 4' beech hedge backed up by a chain link fence and a gate of the same height that's covered in angled trellace that little people can't climb over.

I don't mind the cuts and bruises, we all get those anyway. I don't have fond memories of stings and bites but they didn't really do me any serious harm.

Dravokivich

suicide_circus wrote: »

Do you have many unidentified men in white vans driving around the area?

huh? You stop every van or something?

Egginacup

Robsweezie wrote: »

They would have to be street wise, have their wits about them and know all about stranger danger etc. I would say 8 or 9. But then again a younger age might toughen them up.

(Sorry you mean a garden and not an estate, just keep an eager eye and ear on them)

And how does a kid become street-wise exactly? It's not something you can read in a book. They learn by doing.

Egginacup

RonanP77 wrote: »

There's a bog down the bottom of the back garden and a drain/stream between us and it. The garden is separated from the lawns with a 4' beech hedge backed up by a chain link fence and a gate of the same height that's covered in angled trellace that little people can't climb over.

I don't mind the cuts and bruises, we all get those anyway. I don't have fond memories of stings and bites but they didn't really do me any serious harm.

Stings, bites, and all the other germs and bacteria out there will ensure that your kid grows up with a hardy immune system and no bullshit allergies like all these saps nowadays who can't put a thing in their mouths without breaking out in some kind of rash or seizure because they've been scrubbed and disinfected by mammy everyday since they were hatched.

As for the bog.....take him down there and let him get stuck and then rescue him from the mire, thus demonstrating "bogs are dodgy, steer clear!"

syklops

This thread explains an awful lot about the young folk of today.

Dravokivich

Egginacup wrote: »

As for the bog.....take him down there and let him get stuck and then rescue him from the mire, thus demonstrating "bogs are dodgy, steer clear!"

It'd be keen on taking a similar approach to a fare few things with my young fella. They'd learn more about caution from distress. Warning'em in advance means little.

Sure I learned how to use the brakes on my bike after cycling straight into a thorn bush!

the_syco

RonanP77 wrote: »

a hedge the whole way around the outside

A hedge ain't "secure".

/edit is the chain-link fence behind it all the way around?

RonanP77 wrote: »

Tall for their age, fairly hardy and loves being outdoors.

So should see the hedge as a challenge.

Add more kids, and you get the mischief of "what's beyond the hedge" :pac: but by themselves, most kids don't wander.

darkpagandeath wrote: »

Eh, When did it become OK to leave children unsupervised at any age ? especially below 6.

What age did you think? 18?

darkpagandeath wrote: »

Nah your mistaking me with the wrong kind of outrage, I'm sick of 2 yearolds running around on the roads, Around housing estates as if they own the place. And the smug parents saying it's their right to do so as roads are playgrounds.

I'm mistaking you for one of these people that read the entire thread, and not just the subject.

SEPT 23 1989

Its difficult for a child to learn to rules of the jungle on a manufactured "play date"

RonanP77

the_syco wrote:

/edit is the chain-link fence behind it all the way around?

the_syco wrote:

A hedge ain't "secure".

Yeah, the chain link is the whole way around, there's no way of getting through and as for going over, the hedge will grow by a few inches a year and the bushes in it are too weak to climb. The chain link has a barbed wire at ground level so no going under either.

Egginacup

Dravokivich wrote: »

It'd be keen on taking a similar approach to a fare few things with my young fella. They'd learn more about caution from distress. Warning'em in advance means little.

Sure I learned how to use the brakes on my bike after cycling straight into a thorn bush!

Kids who've never been allowed to climb trees, walls etc., are much more likely to develop vertigo at a later stage.

Exposure to all these minor dangers cultivates excellent risk assessment skills.

diomed

What do you mean by "outside"?
If you mean in your own garden then as soon as they are able to eat mud.
If "outside" means in the street then age 7 and up, or younger if there are older children with them.

murpho999

I fear we are raring a nation of wusses as parents fear that children cannot play in their own gardens, or there are paedoes lurking on every corner.

Of course a child needs protection but they also need to be prepared for the world.

RonanP77

diomed wrote:

What do you mean by "outside"? If you mean in your own garden then as soon as they are able to eat mud. If "outside" means in the street then age 7 and up, or younger if there are older children with them.

Big garden, big hedge, big fence, no street, gate closed so can't get on the road.

syklops wrote:

This thread explains an awful lot about the young folk of today.

In what way? Who do you think is wrong?

The townies saying to let them run around the estate with 20 other kids?

The culchies saying let them out in the garden to get bitten, scratched, stung etc.?

The people saying to keep them locked up and protected?

syklops

RonanP77 wrote: »

The people saying to keep them locked up and protected?

The people saying 8 or 9 is about right to leave them outside alone. Or the people saying "until they learn street wisdom via osmosis".