I too, who am probably 'middle class' although definitely not well off as am a student and a 'creative' partner, 2 kids blah blah blah, cannot bear the over protective mollycoddling attitude of most parents in the park BUT I don't think it is a class/race/money/whatever issue. It is just the way we are with our kids these days in general as I have witnessed the same sort of cringemaking behaviour from all types of people. The sort of people who take their kids to the park when it's been raining and tell them not to splash in puddles in case they get dirty! I have seen it myself, kids in the park in their best clothes being told not to go on the grass, kids being constantly told to be careful on the roundabout etc. It drives me mad and I sometimes feel embarrased to be associated with them. CWALD - it's all very well talking about the kids in the estate but as I made the point earlier, most of the kids in the park are too young to go there alone and need to be taken - and what is so wrong with two parents taking their child to the park? I sometimes go with my partner and I sometimes go alone, I don't see that as over protecting my child I see it as doing something as a family. When I'm in the kiddy park with my almost three year old I do my utmost to let her do her own thing and sit on a bench having a rest watching from afar. I don't care if she gets dirty, she'll wash. My ten year old now goes out to play on his own with his mates of an evening - out of my sight but with a boundary of a few streets. It is worrying when you let them go like that but it has to be done, I'm not sure I would have done it much younger though unfortunately for him. Not really got a point here, just rambling on. I am getting bored with this constant working/middle class thing on this forum though, it's generalising and that is always a dangerous thing.