by Shelley Kishpaugh

Created on: March 03, 2009

The maturity of the child and the traffic patterns of the street definitely need to be considered when deciding whether to let your child play in the street. Age can be a factor in this decision, but it is not the most important factor. Children show maturity at different rates, and although their chronological age can sometimes tell you something about their maturity level, age is not a good measure for maturity at any life stage.

When my children were small, they often wanted to ride their bikes in the street. The streets themselves were mostly safe, but not one hundred percent safe. There was nowhere else that they could ride their bikes conveniently. I came up with a compromise. They could ride in the street only if I was out there. I would take a folding lawn chair and sit by the road. I would do the watching for traffic for them. Every time a car turned onto our block I would loudly yell "CAR!" They learned that they needed to immediately go to the side of the road, stop their bikes, and wait for the car to pass. When the danger was over, I'd yell "go play". This was a great way to allow my kids, as well as the neighbors, to play in the street safely. My children were preschoolers and early elementary-school aged during this time.

When we moved to a neighborhood with a safer street, my children got the privilege of riding in the street without me. They were responsible enough to move to the side without reminders whenever a car came. In fact, whoever saw the car first would do what I had always done, they would yell "CAR!" and all the kids would go to the side of the road. The children were early and late elementary-school aged at this time.

We've since moved again. We now live on a road where nobody is allowed to play in the street. There are two reasons for this. The first reason is that there is really just too much traffic passing by here daily. The other reason is that we are immediately across the street from a very large park. They can ride their bikes, Rollerblades and whatever else far more safely on the park's sidewalks. The children are now middle elementary-school aged and young middle school aged.

You would be much better off making your decision regarding when to allow your child to play in the street based on factors other than age. If the road is safe and the children are responsible, then age shouldn't be the most important factor.

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