[-HungryWoman-]

Yesterday afternoon when getting home from work my across the road neighbours were sitting on their footpath watching their grand daughters who were about 6 and 8yrs old, riding their scooters on the road (we live in a quiet dead end street cul-de-sac)) When getting out of the car I went over to chat and my DD decided that she would like to get her scooter out. So I got her scooter, shoes and helmet and she road around with them with us supervising for about 30 minutes, she had a ball. When DH got home from work she was telling him she was on her scooter and I explained. He got cranky that I let our 3yr old ride on the road. Was this warranted???

DD doesnt leave the yard without us on any occasion and has never wandered on the road before. We have locked security screens on all doors and the back gate is always locked so she cant really get out by herself if she decided one day to do it by herself.

This post has been edited by -HungryWoman-: 03/04/2012, 07:22 PM

[seaside_shells]

As long as she was supervised (which she was)& therefore not in any danger I think your DH overreacted.

[Madnesscraves]

If she was supervised I can't see the problem. I think your DH overreacted. You didn't do it on a busy street. You did it on a quiet dead end street.

[my serenity]

No my kids play in our quiet steet all the time, actually its nothing unusual to drive in and there are kids playing everywhere, When younger i supervised now older they go out on their own the people in the street know to watch for them and they have a great YELLING CAR system that they all use that works to get the kids scrambling to th sides when needed
Your husbnad over reacted esepcially when you were out watching

[pinkcupcakes]

its easy for our partners to react to things when they weren't there, isnt it? without the details i spose it sounds bad, but given your circumstances(the quiet cul de sac, plus 3 adults supervising, plus helmets etc) it doesnt sound like the kind of thing i'd be worried about. if, on the off chance some lunatic decided to come screaming round the corner, one would hope you'd have time to get the kids off the road safely, but given your area and the fact that you would probably hear them coming before you saw them, i dont think hubby's reaction is altogether warranted. i would be the same, i would make sure dd was safe and no way would i let her out the front without me. sounds like you had things under control, op.

[Straight*No*Chas...]

That's normal for our cul-de-sac. Sometimes we have 15 or more kids playing out there on bikes and scooters, from ages 2 to 14. The neighbours know to drive slowly into the street and we have a rule that the kids can only play in the end of the cul-de-sac, not the straight part, just in case a stranger hoons around the corner (not likely in this neighbourhood anyway).

[fancie]

Up till now, we have had a blanket rule for DD - no riding on the road, ever. When she was younger it prevented her needing to make decisions about whether it was safe/unsafe, supervised/unsupervised etc.

Our street is a very long cul-de-sac but with 4 other cul-de-sacs coming of our street at various points as well as having a 3-way intersection. We have a lot of cars that once on the 'home straight' of about 120m absolutely floor it and probably get to 80kph easily. Yet some of our neighbours think nothing of allowing their 3 and 4 years olds to ride unsupervised on this stretch of road. We have come close to hitting a couple of kids ourselves when they have shot off the footpath or come flying out of a side street. Thank goodness we were already braking to turn into our driveway.

I think that with younger children, it can be difficult to comprehend and remember that it was okay to do whatever activity last time because mum was watching, but it's not okay this time because mum doesn't know they've taken their bike/scooter out to the street.

Maybe that's what concerns your DH.

[greenacre]

Sorry I'm with your DH. No scooters on the road for me. Ever.

[2dogs-DD-DH-and-...]

I am also with your DH on this one.

We live in a very quiet secluded court like street and I DETEST seeing children of ANY AGE playing on the road here.

This might be because we have a park in the middle of our street (the street goes around the park) and it has a long footpath on it from end to end. There is also a footpath that runs right around the whole street that children can use to ride bikes, skateboards etc here - yet they don't.

Even supervised, I think it is irresponsible of anyone to let their child play on a road.

There is a difference between the stage when you teach your child to look right, look left, look right again before crossing the road and the attitude of "here's a bitumen playground, come in for dinner".

[Phascogale]

Why didn't you let her ride on the footpath instead?

I'm in two minds about this. An older child I would feel happier if on the road and with supervision but not a 3 year old. But at the same time I'm guessing there were lots of warning should a car come down the road.

But even then I would err on the side of caution and not have them on the road.