[~*Nicole*~]

Why are there so many self-righteous people on facebook?! I'm about to punch one of my "friends" through my laptop who is telling me (self-righteously) how NO parent should EVER be so careless to allow their children to play outside alone... And anyone that does is basically a crappy parent. Do you guys let your older kids play outside unsupervised or am I the only careless one in the bunch? What age do you start letting your kids play outdoors and do they know what to do in case of a stranger approaching them?

[caitbeans]

My daughter is 6 and I let her play outside alone, she rides her bike with her friend. She knows stranger danger, I check on her often and we live on a quiet street.

[Admin-Rachel]

Can't post right now cause feeding Keelan, but I have so much to say. Short version is yes. Daniel is 6 and had been playing outside for a while now. He knows his boundaries and he is good at staying where I can stick my head out the door and see him.

Screw your "friend".

[mccaroline]

My 4 year old plays in our fenced back yard alone, my 8 year old plays in either the front or back yard alone. Is this "friend" a parent?

[Mama.Angie]

I will when they hit the right age. I think your friend is being very unreasonable. I think she deserves that cyber punch

[~*Nicole*~]

She is a parent of an 11 year old and a 6 year old and she reported her ex for allowing their 6 year old to play outside alone, which frankly reeks of her trying to get sole custody. But the fact that she calls other moms careless for letting their kids play alone is just ridiculous. And I called her on it and she is a long winded sort of person who rides HIGH up on her horse and apparently I am really insensitive for telling her she's full of it I'm not one to unfriend but I might have to before I am in need of a new computer because this one is broken Thanks for talking me down from my ledge!

[Dixana]

I let my 4 yr old play outside alone.
Granted, we live in the country, but either way.
When I was 5 I walked about a mile to kindergarten by myself.

TBH, I think she sounds like a nut.

[w292737]

my girls are 9 and 7 and they play outside alone. they play in the back with the neighbor alone,a nd in the front from time to time.

I check on them (more often if out front) and they know they can't go past certain points and stuff like that.

I don't see the big deal. I'm not on a busy street, and all that. which is why I moved here

[MommytoaMiracle]

Honestly, to each their own & if YOU want to let your kids play outside by themselves you have EVERY right...Like who is she to say you are a bad Mom because of it...Grr, I HATE judgy people! Hate.

Ignore her.

[marieks85]

Wow reporting her husband bc he let the 6 year old play outside alone is ridiculous! It's ironic how she claims crappy parents let their kids play outside alone yet isn't she a crappy parent for causing unnecessary tension between herself and her ex and putting the kids in the middle? Sounds like she should get off her high horse and join the rest of us back on planet Earth

[Admin-Rachel]

OK, now that I have time to post more.

I think I shared this with you all back in April or May of last year. October of 2010 I got a visit from CPS because some one in the neighborhood had reported me for allowing Daniel to play outside without supervision. He was 5 at the time. He was ALWAYS with either his 9 year old or 11 year old brother. The CPS worker told me that the law stated that they needed to be supervised outside until they were 8 years old. I demanded that she produce such law and she couldn't. The law she was referring to is only about leaving children at home alone or in a car alone. Not outside unsupervised. She didn't like being challenged so she found me to be neglectful (only me, not Neely) of only Daniel. They didn't do anything, just said I was neglectful and put my name on some central registry in the state of parents who have abused or neglected their kids. I couldn't stand for it. I filed an appeal and took my attorney/friend with me.

At the appeal the worker failed to show a specific date or day when I allowed Daniel to be outside alone. She just said that "there was a pattern of him being allowed outside without supervision". We argued that it is within my right as a parent to put limits on my children and I had more of a "free-range" style of parenting. We asked for a dismissal based on the worker being unable to prove anything and the judge agreed and we won.

Daniel is still allowed outside.

[Mod-navywifey2003]

Well I am in the minority. I do not let my kids play outside by themselves and I am not sure when I will. They play in the backyard but not the front. People drove very fast down our street at our last house and even with us outside they both were almost hit by car after they had permission to get a ball we checked for cars there were none and out of nowhere a car came flying down the street at at least 40. I am not okay with them in the front alone but we live in the city I may or may not feel different if we lived somewhere else.

[CanadianLou]

Rylee is 9, I started letting her play out side by herself at 8 yrs old. We have neighbors whose girls are 8 and 12 and they all 3 play together. They stay in either ours or their yards. We live in a nice place now and it's quiet and calm.

Before we lived here, we lived in a bad part of town and that is why I didn't let her out alone until she was 8 and with other friends....and in my eye sight at all time...(so I could look out and see her or call for her)

[DaniB+3]

I am self-admitted wackadoodle heli-mama but I still let my almost 9 year old twins play outside in our backyard without my immediate supervision. I started letting them do it last summer. Granted, they have to stay in the backyard and must be out there together (one of the perks of having twins!) but they are allowed out there sans adult. I do check on them frequently and try to leave the backdoor open whenever possible, although I will still let them play outside even if I can't leave the door open. I will admit that I am very weird about letting the girls go outside of the yard alone but that is JUST ME and I don't judge other parents for letting other kids of similar age do more than my kids are allowed to do. I totally get it that I am overprotective and don't ever try to project that onto others. Different strokes for different folks.

P.S. - I DID let them walk (with one of their friends) down the street to a girl friend's house without me the other day. It's about equivalent of 1 1/2 city blocks down our country road and I watched them out the window the whole time, but I still let them go alone and managed not to puke all over my own shoes. Progress!

[Dee Darling 3]

Where I live, I let me kids play on our back deck or in the yard (on the swing set) alone while I'm in the kitchen or downstairs and can see them from the windows. M is 5 and K is 3. I'm not too keen on letting them play out front (no fence) because some of the neighbors like to test how fast their motorcycles/cars/quads can go down the dead end street.

On the other hand, our neighbors are also very good about watching everyone. I know that they wouldn't let anyone take my kids without seeing me first.

I haven't spent much time on the whole stranger danger thing and am going to need to work on this this summer before M starts kindergarten.

[irishblessing]

My oldest will be 4 in July. I usually don't let her play outside alone. We live on 5 acres and the front in fenced with a gate, so no danger from the road. I'm not too worried about strangers as there is usually a dog out in the front too. I will let her play alone while I go in the house to grab something etc, or if she wants to go in the smaller fenced area I will let her play alone. The main reason for not letting her play outside alone in the back is that we have ponds in the back (she has been told many times not to go near them alone, and she IS responsible, but she is 3, so it's not worth the risk) and wild animals. The dogs keep them away reasonably well, but the odd bear will still roam the back and late in the evening there are cyotes further back. We do have the odd couger sighting as well.

[CoreenaC]

Carter isn't old enough to play outside alone yet and since he's my only baby, I've got no clue how we will handle him wanting to play outside alone, guess it will depend on where we live and how responsible he is at a given age.

That being said, we live in an apartment right now and there are 3 3 year olds that live there, twins and then another boy. They are ALWAYS out playing in the parking lot with no adult supervision, I'm talking blinds closed, doors locked, boys are sent out to entertain themselves. They constantly are in the way of cars, go into the street and get into trouble. I think that is irresponsible and dangerous.

I think she's just looking for things to complain about.