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

gibson123

property.advert wrote: »

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.

Haven't read all the posts but the fact is your child is more likely to die in the house than outside, as more children are killed in accidents in their own home,

FBaby

gibson123 wrote: »

Haven't read all the posts but the fact is your child is more likely to die in the house than outside, as more children are killed in accidents in their own home,

But you can't extrapolate from this that it is safer to be out alone than inside. Children, especially nowadays, spend a lot more time at home than inside, so are statistically more likely to be injured inside than out. You also have to take into account age. Most serious accidents happen to young children rather than teenagers. The only proper comparaison would be to look at the number of accidents in children between the age of 8 and 15 when alone both inside and outside.

Saying that I have to say I am surprised how everyone who has posted seem to be quite comfortable with letting their children outside on their own at a relatively young age. Around me, I seem to be the mum letting my children do things independently first. I haven't felt judged for it at all, but it still makes me feel that I am defying the odds, yet coming here, there are a number of people who have let their kids out on their own at an even younger than age than I have. Maybe it depends on location as I am in a smallish, but busy town rather than village.

geoff416

I was out around then! Being 9 all i wanted to do was explore, let them! I used to ride my bike to the garden centre look at the fish with a mate then go play at the brook, get muddy, build dens things like that! What little boys should be doing!

74jax

My DD started walking to school in Year 6 (about 1 mile away).

In the same year I would take her and her friends to the Metrocentre and leave them to shop themselves/go to pictures etc and then another mum would bring them back.

Summer between year 6 and year 7 she started travelling to MetroCentre (about 5 miles) on the bus with friends.

She has always been an outdoors girl and so played out since very young. She had a mobile from about 8 I think.

She has a very similar childhood to mind in that she is out more than she is in.