WWYD: Different Parenting Styles When Playing with Neighbors

[Anonymous]

(when guests were over)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your 5 year old needs supervision when playing off your property or when you have other kids over at your house. Period.

If your kid is playing alone in your backyard, then it's your business.

This. I don't know anyone who wasn't in the backyard with the kids at 5.

Every single parent until the last 10 years, specifically in the USA.

[Anonymous]

Why does everything have to turn into a moomy war, parenting compeition an mudslinging?

If you are fine having 5 year olds play outsie with minimal supervision great. If you aren't also great. Communicate to the other parent the level of supervision you will or will not be proviing and move on with your life.

[Anonymous]

~4.5-6 are kinda borderline ages. Some kids and/or parents are fine without supervision and some need/are more comfortable with it. IMO neither of you are wrong or weird, which means neither of you should be judging the other, either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:~4.5-6 are kinda borderline ages. Some kids and/or parents are fine without supervision and some need/are more comfortable with it. IMO neither of you are wrong or weird, which means neither of you should be judging the other, either.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:~4.5-6 are kinda borderline ages. Some kids and/or parents are fine without supervision and some need/are more comfortable with it. IMO neither of you are wrong or weird, which means neither of you should be judging the other, either.

+1

+2
My older DD will be 5 in January, we have a fenced in backyard, and I still won’t let her play out there unsupervised. Our yard is shaped in such a way that I don’t have visibility of the entire yard from one window, and I will readily admit I am overprotective. But I don’t judge other people who might take a different approach in the same situation. My own parents let me play outside in an unfenced yard by the time I was her age, but I grew up in a more rural area...and in the 80s...and with a very large, protective dog!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your 5 year old needs supervision when playing off your property or when you have other kids over at your house. Period.

If your kid is playing alone in your backyard, then it's your business.

Well, the other mother knows OP won’t supervise, so it’s up to her whether she lets her child go over to OP’s. She can either let go and let god, or she can do as she does, and watch. But no need for OP to change her ways.

[Anonymous]

Are the yards fenced? I’m assuming no if they all run back and forth. I would want my 5 yo supervised at least half heartedly if she was at your house.... not just free to run back and forth.

[Anonymous]

I’m surprised by the people that hang out in the yard if 5 year olds playing. Do you just follow them around the yard and house all day long? If the yard is fenced absolutely fine to let them play without hovering. Peek out every so often and check on them. I say this with a private yard and no for traffic. Would feel differently if a path/golf course etc behind the house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:~4.5-6 are kinda borderline ages. Some kids and/or parents are fine without supervision and some need/are more comfortable with it. IMO neither of you are wrong or weird, which means neither of you should be judging the other, either.

Yep. This is related to the reason almost all preschool birthday parties assume parents stay, K birthdays are about half and half, and most 1st grade assume drop-off.

[Anonymous]

Wait, it's a fenced yard, right? So, like inside your house but without a roof? I am not seeing how a 5 year old would be in great danger (unless you have rusty nails in the fence or a tree about to fall over?).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You sound lazy and neglectful.

How is your kid so mature she can play outside unsupervised but cant behave in the home so you can get things done?

So much this. You are the one doing it wrong.

So, the mom has some laundry to do and dinner to make. Kid wants to go outside. She has to make the kid stay inside just to prove her kid can behave indoors while mom does chores?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You sound lazy and neglectful.

How is your kid so mature she can play outside unsupervised but cant behave in the home so you can get things done?

So much this. You are the one doing it wrong.

So, the mom has some laundry to do and dinner to make. Kid wants to go outside. She has to make the kid stay inside just to prove her kid can behave indoors while mom does chores?

Her own kid is one thing. When you have another kid over you are responsible for supervising.

[Anonymous]

Don't let them play together. I had the same problem as you op and just told my daughter to not go over to x house to play and to avoid playing with x in the cul the sac. I didn't ask or want other parents to "watch over my child" or feel put on by my child playing without parental supervision.

That happened when child was between 6 and 8.5... I started letting my child walk home by herself from the bust stop in 1st grade and there was always a "well intentioned" parent who felt the need to walk her home, until I taught my daughter to say "no thank you - I prefer to walk alone and my mother is ok with it."

And I would tell my child to avoid "x" in the cul the sac because her mother is a hoover...

In second grade they (parents) gave up finally and a few other kids were also walking home alone so they would come together.

But there are some parents that still walk their kids to the bus stop and pick them up even though they are in 5th grade +!

[Anonymous]

Depends on your neighborhood. I let my 5th grader play outside, walk our dog, etc outside alone until our neighbor’s vicious dog came through a hole in their fence and tried to attack our kid and our dog one day. After that, one of us was always outside if the kids were outside.