Kids playing outside....An irrelevant & overrated thing of the past?

You need to come to my neighborhood. There are children outside everywhere. I live in a small town though, maybe this is more of a city thing?

—I don’t think they make extension cords long enough—

People aren’t as trustworthy nowadays.

You’re right. When I was a kid, I played outside and so did so many other kids. Now, it seems, there is a considerable decrease in the amount of kids playing outside. This could be due to a multitude of factors:
—Kids now get more entertainment through electronics, i.e. TV, video games, internet.
—Parents, who have been becoming increasingly stricter since the 1500s, are reluctant to let their children outside where “bad men” and “dangerous things” may get them. This might also contribute to my first factor, that is, parents might rather buy electronics for their children so that they know the kids are safe indoors.
—There could be a decrease in the birth rate of lower-to-middle class children, due to several more factors, that has resulted in the perceived drop in playing kids.

I played outside when I was young too. The kids in the neighborhood across the street from me do play outside. I see them biking and little girls drawing hopscotch.

@jonsblond Actually, I find in cities they plan for young childrens play. There is almost always playgrounds nearby. Out in the country I would guess they just run free, play football and ride bikes etc. I really think it depends on the city, suburb, or developer of the area. If they planned for children’s play, and made it a part of the philosophy of the area. Growing up we had playgrounds nearby, and green spaces for football games and soccer, pools for the community, tennis courts, bike paths.

One of the biggest changes I think in some areas is that parents are paraoid about letting their children out unsupervised. Kids don’t even walk to school anymore.

I sometimes bitch about living in a small town (no good Chinese Food, among other things) but kids play on the street all day here, and it’s a pleasure to watch it.

We have kids playing in our streets every day. I live in a neighborhood that has only one main entrance from a major street, and is all curves like a rat maze.

Yeah, kids are out no doubt. But not as much as they used to be it seems. Eh, I digress, maybe it’s the city where I live at, who knows?

@YARNLADY The town I live in is rather small, and just starting to grow, so they are in the planning stages. I have an elementary school a block from so lots of children. Anyway, I sat in on some of the planning meetings, and they are purposely requiring that people be able to drive from one subdivision to another, pretty much all subdivisions must have two entrances. I told them in all of the moves I have made, I have never known a planned city to desire that; encouraging traffic to drive through a neighborhood to get to the next neighborhood. Not only is it strange to me because of children playing in the streets, but also because the crime rate is ridiculously high in the area. They like to think they are a sleepy town with lots of trees, but the reality is we are not far outside of Memphis and houses get robbed.

We actually do have two ways in, but only one of them is off a major street. The street is walled all along our subdivision, with the only opening in the wall is the street that comes in.