Do you let your kids play outside?

I've never been that girl who had a lot of friends. In fact, I met my best friend in third grade. Im friendly with my colleagues but work is just work. I have two small kids and sometimes I feel guilty for not having friends. My upbringing was so much different from what my kids are experiencing. As a child, I would play outside all day with other kids until the street lights came on. Nowadays children are more sheltered. That's why I had a second child. It used to break my heart to seeing my oldest playing by herself all the time. Sometimes I feel guilty about being cooped up in the house and them not having other kids to play with. I'm too scared to let my 9-year-old play outside unattended. Tbh.. as a millennial, I'm happy I survived my childhood bcus both my parents worked and they put alot of trust in us to take care of ourselves. But idk Im just venting.. I remember playing with a whole bunch of kids on my block that's how I met my best friend.

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My son is too young- he's only 2m old. I live in a court with a grass field in the middle. If I'm still in this house when he's old enough, I will absolutely let him play in the back yard or the court.id watch him out front but I have a 6ft privacy fence out back. Unfortunately I don't have many kids his age close by, so he's gotta play with the dogs. I'm 35.

I played outside a ton as a kid on the street or nearby. But I grew up on a farm and when we moved into town we were on a pretty quiet street. My current house is a quiet street but cars come real fast down the street sometimes. So we mostly come out all of us to walk up and down the street or ride bikes. Or we go to the park. We have a nice side yard though so I'm happy to have the kids play there. They are both very young though so I wouldn't leave them unattended. Oregon also prohibits leaving a kid under 10 alone in a way that "endangers them" which is pretty broad depending on how you interpret.

My almost 10 yr old has been playing in our neighborhood for about 2 yrs. We do live in a safe subdivision and obviously I check in on him but he usually goes out between 930-11 am and comes back for the day around 6-7. He comes home and plays some but he's out and about.

I played outside almost nonstop growing up and I feel like it's essential. My daughter is 3 and she plays in the back and front yard, supervised and we've taught her not to go into the road and stuff. It's a good area too, so I'm not worried. And it gets me out more, so that's good!

My kids play outside in the backyard, if they have friends that want to come over to the house that's are always welcome

I never used to play outside but my son is 4 years old. Every weekday after school, I take him to the park, he also have swimming class every Wednesday, we go trampoline once in a while and sometimes I play with him outside, too.

I would never let my child play somewhere unsupervised except my tard which has 6foot fences all the way around and no one can get in at all. I just take my to parks or play groups before she had some friends and now we do play dates woth her friends etc. But unless its too cold or too hot here or shes sick she usually plays outside everyday

They say the world was a lot different when we were younger. I was just telling my husband not to long ago about how I remember I use to walk EVERYWHERE. And when I finally got a bike I ride around every where. Stayed a night at friends houses. I was 10-11 years old. And honestly people were still just as crazy back then. But I wouldn’t dare let my babies do it! My oldest is 10. She wants to go outside and play with her friend, I take my chair and sit out there while they play. Maybe I’m doing too much I don’t know, but I’ve heard/seen too many horror stories about too many babies.

@Tiarra 💯

Yes, I'm from NYC and started taking public transportation alone at 12. There were kids much younger on the bus at that time, too. I started sitting back and observing when my kids got to be around 8/9 to see how they interact with other kids. I address what needs to be addressed (how to stick up for themselves and each other, how to leave immediately if grown ups are arguing nearby, don't touch anything mysterious on the ground to play with, etc.) I started letting them go to the park alone or with each other for a few minutes at a time at first. Then, I started expanding it to 20-30 minutes at a time and now my youngest is 10 and I'm letting up on the leash with him, so to speak. Know your kids, know your neighborhood, know your neighbors, & I think it's better for their development to let them go!

I saw a video recently of a woman letting her 7 year old go into ChicFilA to order food for the family. She said it was a challenge and she couldn't go in to check on him and could only trust that she trained him well. I loved it. I've been working on letting go of my fears with the kids. If I am constantly afraid of worst case scenarios then my kids will never learn how to handle themselves. There are other parents out there who let their kids out, but you gotta know who your kids are around and connect with their parents. That's how I manage my anxiety about it. I make sure I exchange numbers with other moms in the area. I've had moms call me when our teens don't come home on time and we went outside together and confronted the whole friend group. I'm a supporter of bringing back villages and letting these kids explore again.

I really liked the book "How to Raise an Adult" Helps with letting our children be independent so they can function as adults 💛 https://a.co/d/2fWDdo5