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I was never allowed this free play growing up so it's a little foreign to me. DH did that so I know he will encourage it but I guess we'll have to see how the other parents in the neighborhood feel about it ... she might not have anyone to play with outside anyway!

Probably. Other kids in our neighborhood are always outside unsupervised. But I'm sure I'll be that mom who's always either secretly checking or coming up with excuses like offering snacks.

Nope! And I feel so sad about it. But not as long as we're living in NYC. And I grew up here, my sister and I played outside unsupervised almost every day that it was warm--all the kids played outside unsupervised, though there might be a couple of parents sitting on stoops and older kids to watch over us. Everyone looked out for each other. Things aren't the same!

My kids will absolutely play outside by themselves. That how I was raised and I plan to do the same. Some of my favorite memories of playing with other kids come from these unsupervised times.

Plus, I think it builds a sense of independence.

I guess it depend on where we live! I love the idea of it because I used to play in my backyard with the neighborhood kids. Or we'd go back and forth from one house to another, to the other with none of our parents worried about our whereabouts.

Oh, I miss those carefree days!

I will. I don't like how parents are becoming so overprotective that the thought of sending their children out to check the mail scares the crap out of them.

Our kids will definitely be allowed to play outside unsupervised. I remember growing up, I used to ride my bike down the street to my friend's house, and we'd go bike riding to the local store and around town. Some of my fondest memories are playing outside with friends.

We live in a larger community than I did growing up, so there will probably be more restrictions on my kids, but definitely once I feel they are mature enough to be unsupervised, I'll let them.

I think it would depend on where we're living and how old they are. I grew up playing free range as long as I stayed in our own neighborhood. If it's any type of big city, then no I wouldn't feel comfortable letting them play outside unsupervised. But a smaller town, where I knew the majority of neighbors, then as long as they stayed within viewing distance of the house, it would be ok.

@HabesBabe: Oooh, I live somewhere where we have street lights (I grew up in the country where we didn't have any) and I love the idea of using that as the timing! I'm totally going to do that!

Depends on where we're living when our LOs are old enough to play outside. Currently we're about 20 mins from Atlanta. Atlanta's known as the #1 hub of human trafficking and child sex exploitation in the US (can you believe it?!) so if we're still here, hells no I'm not letting my kids outta my sight.
This is why we have 2 guns at home too!

It was the best during the summer because the lights didn't come on for awhile (with daylight saving and all). I think that kids need to have some independence and opportunities to get into minor trouble. For example, my friend had an awesome bike and her parents always told her to be responsible/care for it. She would ride it to school and once we went to a liquor store to play Street Fighter (lol) and she didn't lock it up, and it was stolen. You better believe she took care of her stuff after that.

I think kids nowadays are too protected (or parents are just too paranoid).

I used to play unsupervised in the apartment complex where we lived but then again all the families in the complex knew each other so they there was always a few adults/older kids to get help from if needed.

We moved to our city because it's a safe community and I'd love to let my LO out to play on her own but it would really depend on how things are that time. I would say at least 7 or 8 years old before I even consider it though.

Absolutely! This was a huge part of DH and my growing up and we chose our house now and will choose our dream home in the future based on the safety and family-oriented neighborhood.

The lil kids in our neighborhood often play together outside and all of the parents know one another. We will definitely wait until mid-late elementary school years, for safety purposes, but I definitely think that sheltering kids too much can also be detrimental as some parents believe leaving them without supervision can be to their safety.

Being able to just let my kids go out and play is really important to me, so even after we're out of the military (and thus not living on a military base) I'll do everything in my power to live in a neighborhood that would let us feel comfortable enough to just let our kids out and play!

I lived on a main road growing up and I would still go play with my neighbors. We would just stay in our yards, or go to the apartment that was down the street if we wanted to ride bikes (so we could ride in the parking lot). I'm willing to be anyone living on that street now won't just let their kids walk down the street to hang out with their friends anymore which is sad to me.

Yep! DS is 7 & plays outside all the time while we're inside at home. He has to check in periodically and come in when he starts seeing the headlights on on cars.

The apartments that we live in (along with all the newer apts in our town) are sect 8/govt based (haven't a clue why they use our nice apts for this but they do...) so we know that everyone that lives here had to have a background check & we don't have any listed sex offenders in the apts. We don't really worry about him going missing of anything like that for the simple fact that abduction really isn't more prevalent today then it used to be.... it's just more known with media. Plus we just dealt with an awkward circumstance over Thanksgiving where DS wouldn't hug one of DH's male cousins b/c he didn't remember him... he said "I don't hug men." and I was standing RIGHT there. So I feel pretty confident that DS would run if someone tried to coax him. lol

I couldn't imagine not letting him out on his own.... we've set up guidelines and are pretty strict in enforcing them (he was grounded for a week b/c he came it after it was already just about dark). If DS isn't allowed to go out his own, how will he ever know how to discern different situations?

We're very open and talk about him & his friends, their lives (as some are the "squarest" kids on the block & come from all different backgrounds) and with that we get to help DS learn how to avoid situations and how to deal with situations that come up.

Outside = Good life experiences & lessons =)