[Samual]

How old were your children?

At our new house we are on a street of six houses, in two of them Mike's has friends from school, in two others there are children his age, they are all allowed to play outside alone as long as they stick to certain areas, you have to open a gate to drive into the street and then go over cattle gates, so speeding cars just don't happen.

So, Mike's wants to be able to play outside with his friends on his own, I'm not too keen, Frank's all for it, he grew up in one of the roughest estates in the UK and was running around on his own at three, so he thinks he was fine, they'll be fine. He hasn't said this to Mike's.

I know it is a small enclosed street, but I lived on a small enclosed street as a kid, very well behaved at home, out of mum and dads site we were absolute monsters!

I know the easiest option is to say yet, have Mike's bugger off all day and shut Frank up, but I'm still feeling I should say no.

[mollymae]

I say this completely depends on the child. It's a bit different for me because my lot go out together now. However Jack was playing out when we moved up here so he was just 5. We live in a cul-de-sac so no speeding here either. Jack, Molly and Luke could all be trusted to not wander and had road sense. Josh isn't allowed out because he has no sense of danger at all. He even wanders off if i let him out with the older ones. Libby is more reliable and has road sense already.

[abrahamalegre]

let him go out and play with the kids worst thing that can happen he has a bad time with the other kids and does not want to play with them again ,
or the good thing could be he goes out to play with other kids has a great time and you meet the other kids mum and dads and you make new friends as well as your son.

4 is too young to be out alone so if you do allow him to go play you need to be out there as well. If you don't know the other kids well, then you will wantto be out there anyway so you can get an idea of what type of influence they will be.

[AussieD]

My children never played out the front or in the street alone, even when we lived in a cul de sac. They were allowed to go to a friend's place and play in their back yard or they played with friends in our back yard.

[mollymae]

My kids are always in full view and in ear shot as there are only 6 houses in the cul-de-sac. I don't agree with letting children run wild and be out of the house with no one knowing where on earth they are or what they are doing. I do think a bit of freedom is good though. My 8 and 10 year old are sensible enough to walk themselves the 3/4 mile to school and back. We live in a small country town so it might be a completely different kettle of fish if we lived in bigger town or city.

[Samual]

So, we, well Frank let him out today while I was in town and didn't tell me until Mikey blurted it out at tea time!

Anyway, Frank told Micheal to stay in the street or some ones house/garden who lived on the street, he kind of stuck to it, he went into the woods that run along the side of the road without any houses on, he came back absolutely covered in mud.

So, all in all, I'm feeling quite smug tonight.