My 7-year-old son has been playing outside with the other kids in the neighborhood for the past six hours. They’ve been playing tag, basketball, Jailbreak, climbing trees, etc. The kids get along well, they are in and out of each others’ houses all spring, summer and fall (between school and cold weather in the winter, they don’t spend as much time together). Often, in the summertime, I’ll have six kids over unexpectedly for lunch, and he is often a guest for lunch or dinner at a neighbor’s. All the moms supply the kids with popsicles, gatorade, and snacks, and keep an eye on each other’s children.
I think this is such a wonderful way to grow up. I read about parents complaining that their kids don’t get outside, kids are overscheduled with sports and such…I take so much joy in watching my boy live in this friendly, old-fashioned type of neighborhood, like I grew up in. I consider him very lucky to be able to have these experiences and memories as he grows up.
That’s it, nothing profound. It just fills me with joy to watch him have fun, and I wanted to share it with someone.
Good on you. When I was a kid, a good day involved leaving the house around 8am and not coming home until I heard that “pissed” tone in the call to come in for dinner.
Awesome. Sometimes it seems like you only see kids bent over their video games or cell phones, thumbs twiddling away, oblivious to the world. It’s gotten so I specifically notice when I see kids riding bikes or playing catch.
I remember those days with my kids. Enjoy them. I also had a nice childhood myself and we had a summer place and I spent all summer swimming and on the beach. It was such a carefree time. Inside? Now that was boring when I was a kid!
I see tons of kids outside in my neighborhood - walking together, riding bikes, or playing basketball, or tossing the football. They don’t seem to realize it’s freaking hot out there!
(Houston in late May - humid and in the 90’s…)
When I was growing up, we stayed out all day - getting drinks of water out of neighbors garden hoses - riding everywhere on our bikes, playing tag and hide-n-seek… Ahh - the good old days!
I’m 49 yrs old. As a kid, my summers were spent at cabin on lake in Vermont. We had electricity, but no potable water, no phones, and little to no TV reception. The summer days were spent either in the water or riding bicycles, or playing games outside or fishing. Summer nights were mostly games or monopoly and listening to the baseball game on the radio. Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, and later Expos.
I’m not a kid person myself, but I love that there are kids swarming all over my neighborhood (even though I have to drive carefully around them).
I live in the neighborhood I grew up in, and when I was little us kids from 2 adjoining streets played together all night and day. We’re still all friends, 30 years later.
Now I live on a different street and there’s a whole new crop of kids, now on my street. The parents of all my childhood friends still live at the other end of the neighborhood and it’s quiet over there - everyone is retired.
But down here, it’s all kids all the time. I’m especially tickled with the grandson of the lady across the street. He obviously only hangs out at grandma’s after school and sometimes on weekends, and he’s a “husky” boy. But he was outside from Friday after school to Sunday night, entertaining all of the neighborhood kids with wiffle ball and basketball.
In fact, I was watching them play this weekend and was thinking about starting a thread on the SDMB about kids playing outside. Seems like the common train of thought is “kids don’t play outside anymore!” … but any time it comes up, all Dopers say their kids are outside all the time. And the kids in my neighborhood are outside all the time.
Do kids actually not play outside that much anymore, or do we just like to think they don’t?
I’ve been seeing a lot of kids outside in my neighborhood, but there’s always an adult outside with them. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it keeps them tethered to the front lawn while Mom sits on the front steps. So there’s a bunch of apartment buildings with kids playing out in front but never mingling since there’s an invisible fence around the front lawn. Just let the horde of them hit the schoolyard down the block, maybe get one parent or older kid to watch. Seriously - it was like something out of an East/West turf war, the buildings were exactly across the street from each other and each had a parent in front watching instead of, you know, consolidating it all.
I guess it seems weird to me because the exact reason we were sent outside was because our parents were too busy to watch us.
It depends (largely) on the design of the neighborhood. Sadly, some suburban neighborhoods where people have most space are the ones you are least likely to see kids (or anyone) outside in. They have the disadvantages of the farm but not the advantages.
The main thing I see about children not playing outside is schools taking away their recess, and giving them too much homework to have time playing after school.
Also, when I was a kid, I constantly tried to get my neighbor to play outside, but all he wanted to do was play video games. I’m sure there are other people like that. Heck, I pretty much became like that–being outside is rarely fun for me anymore, as it’s always too hot or too cold or too bright, etc.
I think it’s just in your head. Kids still play wiffle ball and go in the woods, but now, you’re not invited. So you never see the game and you don’t see them building a cabin down by the creek.
And I have to laugh every time I hear someone say something like “All they do is text, text, text. They’re oblivious to the outside world!”. It’s like the speaker doesn’t notice the contradiction there. What, you think they’re texting themselves?
My son is 4 and although there have always been lots of girls on our street, he wasn’t completely happy until a boy moved in next door. They are about 9 months apart in age and play together constantly, either at our house or theirs.
It makes me irrationally happy to see my son playing with his new friend.
I was beyond thrilled when my 7 year old played with kids she found on the block. (We had no relatives with kids and when she was small I could keep her entertained, but I worried about summer vacation when she got older; actually took her to a babysitter a couple times a week just so she could play with other kids.) One of the neighbors had a house with a swimming pool, which was a godsend. They would run from house to house and had sleepovers every weekend here and there. I baked cookies, made milkshakes, ordered pizzas, stirred up Koolaid by the gallon. Took them to the park, on nature walks, to the movies, to McDonald’s. We did all the birthday parties, arts n’ crafts, played games, watched videos. BEST YEARS OF ALL OF OUR LIVES!
My son is lucky that there a a bunch of boys in his age range (5-9) on our block. There is one little girl (age 4) who lives next door, and I feel bad for her - the boys are usually polite to her, but they are not crazy about a girl (especially a younger one) tagging along, and because she is younger, she is not as good at “sharing” and “game rules” as the older ones, so she tends to get left out sometimes. I wish there were more girls for her to play with.
I am one of the moms who sits on the porch like **kusheil **mentioned. I sit and read a book, and watch where they are, but I do it mainly to make sure the kids cross the street safely, not to interfere. They are free to roam both sides of the street, 5 houses in any direction, but I just want to make sure they don’t become roadkill. I think that’s reasonable for 6-year-olds.
Last summer, they were complaining they had to come in at dark (9 pm, bedtime for most of them). So one night we had a neighborhood Dark Party; we let them stay up late, I decorated my backyard with Christmas lights, got out a bunch of glow sticks, and they played tag, simon sez, and redlight/greenlight. Then they went to the neighbor’s yard and swam in the pool at night, then toasted marshmallows over their firepit and we told ghost stories. They thought this was hilarious, and are begging to do it again this summer.
We also had the classic lemonade stand, with homemade signs and spilled lemonade in little paper cups. They had a blast! Cars stopped and bought their lemonade (they were particularly thrilled that the local ambulance stopped by for a glass), and they made a few dollars for fun. Great memories.
I think it’s vitally important to buy a cup of lemonade from a roadside stand, and will go around the block and come back to do so, especially if the kids are real young (with mom or whatever, nearby) - it’s such a thrill for them.
I completely relate to what you are saying here, which is why I told my husband (we are divorcing) that I will do whatever it takes to hold onto the house. I refuse to move into a dreary apartment and lose that precious feeling of knowing your child always has someone nearby to play with. It is going to be a struggle, but it wil be well worth it.
I totally relate. That’s why I will do whatever it takes to hold onto my home in the midst of my divorce. My child does not deserve to be stuffed into a little box (apartment) sheltered from the comfort and safety of the neighborhood he’s lived in from the time he was born. I take great comfort in knowing there’s always kids nearby for him to play with.
To be fair, even before the Internet became big and video games and computers got as popular as they are now, there were kids who hated being outside. I was one of those kids who preferred to sit inside and read a book. And now I’m one of those adults!
I also can’t help feeling there’s a bit of self righteousness in all of these, “When I was a kid, we stayed out from morning to night and NEVER had to rely on electronic devices” threads/posts. It’s nice that some of you enjoyed being outside all the time, but is that necessarily better than kids who don’t do that?
