At what age did you let your child out and about?

missmontana

My son started walking to school in Year 4, just before his 9th birthday, its on the next block, there is only one road to cross with a lollipop lady. She always says he's good and waits for her everyday to cross him over!

That's as far as he goes on his own, its not him I don't trust to cross the road, its more the drivers. There's a zebra crossing at the top of our road going over to a Tesco and they don't always stop at that! I'll be happy when the Sainsbury's is done round the corner cos I'll be able to send him to the shop for me then

I never leave him on his own for more than about 15 mins either at the moment, just given him one of my old mobiles so will show him how to use that soon and see about him going a bit further! Eek :eek:

gibson123

5 years old out in a group playing with friends
6 years old gets to cross on road on her own after months of practise
7 year old gets to travel on a plane without adult supervision
8 year old, gets to walk to friends houses on own but has to call to say she has arrived safely.
10 year old, gets to play out without a call for 4 hours.
12 year old, allowed to travel into the city by train on own to meet me after work, also gets to travel anywhere in our town on her own and stay out until dark, allowed to go to city Glasgow or Edinburgh with a friend to spend the day.

property.advert

Some great answers here backing up my belief that as parents we need to raise kids to be adults and not just couch potatoes scared of the dark.

However, as I come to the first of these stages in allowing my child to have freedoms I used to have, the constant nagging in my mind is the fact that in order to achieve the desired goal of independent offspring, we must accept that some will not survive and others will be injured in one way or another. I do not yet have a balance I am comfortable with but I have time to make sure that my child is best equipped to survive whilst others will unfortunately fail the test of survival of the fittest.

dibuzz

It depends on the child and the area you live in.
It's not uncommon to see kids of 3 and 4 out playing in our street which is quite busy, they live in the street behind us so their parents can't see them.
My kids were about 8 when they started to go out on their own. Son no 2 walked home from Boys Brigade when he was 7 to save me taking the younger 2 who were usually ready for bed or asleep by then but it is literally across the road and a leader always crossed him over so he wasn't really alone.

Lunar_Eclipse

Phil3822 wrote: »

Not the greatest title for this thread but what I want to know is at what age would/did you let your child out of the house by themselves? Like walking to school, local shop, friends house etc.

We live in a village and we often notice children in our sons class walking about by themselves or in small groups. The children are 8 or 9.

We do not and have not let our boy out and about by himself however it got me thinking about what age peoples children are before they begin to learn about being streetwise.

It depends on the maturity of the children and the environment, but the level of independence you have mentioned in a village environment sounds reasonable to me at that age.

I was allowed out and about from the age of six, before which I lived overseas. My children were allowed out in our cul-de-sac when they were both considerably younger than that, but were older when I let them go further afield to the shop/park (because we have a busy 'A' road running through our village.)

At 9/10, I often went off on my bike for the whole day at the weekend, with friends and a packed lunch. I think a lot of my parents generation did this from starting school. I worry about the current generation of children who aren't given much responsibility, independence and opportunities to learn basic life skills, because how will they manage going off to university (or work) at 18?

Amara

I was six when I was allowed going outside near house, at seven I walked alone to school, was near by. At 11 was taking bus twice per week to go on swimming classes and back. It was 25 years ago though. I strongly believe child needs independency and needs to be taught it from young age.

embob74

I've always been quite cautious with my youngest DD as she has always been over-confident and thought she should be able to do things I thought she was too young for.
She pestered me to be able to walk home from school at age 9 (year 5 in primary) and at age 10 (year 6 in primary when lots of kids were walking home. We do live over a mile away from the school but even if we were closer I still think I would have wanted to accompany her.
At high school I still walked her there and back until recently when she turned 12.
I recently got a lecture from a police officer for letting her walk home from school as he didn't think 12 was old enough to do so. Let's hope he never stands outside the high school at 3:30pm as he'd have a LOT of parents to lecture!

ruby-roo_2

My eldest is 9 years old and is gradually learning road safety and to be streetwise. I felt it was better to start this gradually now, so as by the time he goes to secondary school he will be okay going to and fro.

He goes to school in the morning now, using their 'walking bus' facility. A group of kids wait outside the local pub with their parents, until assistants from the school collect them, and walk them all the way to the playground. They cross several roads and I know road safety is reinforced to them at every opportunity.

Next year he starts on a 'bike-ability' course, which I believe is similar to the cycling proficiency test I did as a child. He can ride a bike easily now and is allowed to ride in the quiet close that we live in and to go into the next street to ours. Our house is positioned in such a way that I can keep a very close eye on him whilst he is out playing with all his friends.

As a parent every milestone and step to independance a child takes is a bit like a double edged sword isn't it. On one hand you are so proud your baby is getting more and more able. On the other hand it takes nerves of steel to let go bit by bit. I will be grey in no time with the worry of it all

mumto2loves

my dd is in year 4 (she's 8) quite a few of her friends walk to school on their own. I have to go to the school anyway with my ds (age 5) so I normally take her, but a few times now, we have been getting in the car and her friends have been walking passed our house and i've let her walk with them, but only because i'll pratically be following her in the car and I see her at the school gates when we get there, she's over the moon at being trusted to do this!

edit - just googled it and we live 0.4 miles or 7 mins walk from the school.

At the weekend shes allowed 'out' but she must stay where I can see her if I look up or down our road, the deal is if shes wasn't there when I looked then that 'trust' would be broken and she would have to stay right out side our house. so far she always has been.

My 5 year old has only played 'out the front' when i've been cleaning my car or gardening.

quietheart

Great thread, my eldest is 11 tomorrow and is happy to walk about half the way home. He's quite young for his age but cautious and it feels about right. He'll have to start doing the full journey soon (over a mile) in preparation for secondary school.
Out of interest would you be as confident to leave your children in the house alone (in the day, not at night)?
I live in Birmingham and most friend/relatives don't leave their kids in the house until 12/13. I know I was babysitting newborn twins regularly at age 12 so I wonder if we mollycoddle too much.