School

[Somebody17]

How old do you think children should be when they start walking to school by themselves?

[Ms.Hijinx]

depends on how mature the kids are and how far away the school is and where its located i live close to their schools in a quiet area and mine have walked to school alone since they were 8 and 10 and both are quite sensible but if i lived in a city or they had to cross busy roads i probably would't have let them til they started secondary school

[maxi29]

Ms Hijinx is right, it depends on the location of the school. I started walking to mine on my own when I was about 6, nearly 7 but it was only about 300m from my house and I had to cross just two very small roads.

[aka pixi]

I think my kids were about 7 or 8 when they started walking to school by themselves. There is one main road that goes by our house but it isnt very busy, once they had crossed this there was no other road until the road outside school which had a crossing lady.

I started off by walking with them to the shop which is about half way between school and home (I would stay by the shop and I could see them until they were almost at the crossing lady) I did the same after school, I would walk to the shop and wait for them there. After a while I would walk them to a pub which is halfway between our house and the shop (here I could see them all the way to the shop) in the end I just walked them to the bottom of our street to cross them over the main road and waited for them there after school.

Its worth remembering that kids dawdle when they are on there own or with their mates and many times I got panicky when they were 10 or 15 minutes later than when they walked with me.

[beejaybee]

I was in a slightle different position. Mine went on a bus. I took the eldest on the bus on his first day, 5. On the second day, he told me "I`m not a baby anymore". I did take him to the bus stop, but he got on full of smiles, paid & waved. The bus stopped right outside the school so there was no probs re roads etc. However, I do agree with what`s been said by others. It depends entirely on where you live etc.

[lynlockwood]

My 8 yr old daughter has to be accompanied becasue she has to cross a terribly busy road that has no road crossing or crossing patrol person and that will have to remain until she starts secondary school. I feel anxious enough crossing the road my self. And we're just around the corner from a large police station. It amazes me that there isn't a police officer who could give us 30 mins in the morning and 30 mins in the afternoon until they appoint a crossing person.

[Amylazy]

I was 12 when I was allowed to walk to school on my own (that was 9 years ago!)

[oliveguy]

my lad is 8 and has just started allowing him to have a bit of responsibility he has one little road to cross and school is a 5 mins walk away though x