AIBU to let my Year 5 daughter walk home alone?

https://www.think.gov.uk/education-resources/

Most of the kids at ours walk home from y5, my eldest did and my youngest will too, it's good practice for secondary when they'll be getting themselves to and from school

Kids do need to get road and traffic aware especially on busy roads. At 7 they should have had a road safety lesson or two. And you as the parent should take them out regularly in that sort of situation so they should know what to do. And watch out for stupid drivers.

Ha ha! That’s classic! I like her style. Not scared of anything I bet. She’ll go far.

DD walked through a graveyard to get to school, in the dark. But she wasn't ever scared by graveyards, she'd drag me out to walk there at midnight a few years later, on Halloween!

In your situation I would let her. Our problem is the massively busy, full of crazy drivers road that DC would have to cross on their own. It’s a nightmare and I’m worried they’re still a bit in their own heads to be safe

Exactly the dark won’t kill them. Bonus points if you walk past a graveyard and scare yourself and your friends stupid. I used to love walking home with my mum and friends from brownies or whatever at age 7/8 and stopping to chat under a lamppost in the dark. As long as a child is sensible in the dark and sticks to lighted paths and roads and carries a torch if need be then it builds up great resilience skills. What happens if it snows and it’s dark? You tackle it sensibly. Or throw snowballs.

For decades kids have had to walk to school by themselves. Actually in 1900s sometime my great grandma walked her younger daughter (about 8 or 9) to school, no idea why, in Ladbroke Grove, and her older sister (my nana) who was 11 was most put out that until she started secondary school (it might’ve been nearby I forget which) her mum walked them both to school! My great grandfather, (nana’s dad) walked all the way to London by himself to find his fortune and get work all the way from Somerset aged 12! He became a tally man and very rich because of it.

A lot of the year 5’s at our primary walk home on their own. Journeys are usually 10-15 mins or less (small town, lots of primaries with small admission distances), along well lit streets and plenty of safe crossing areas. DD will do the same, if she wants to, when she’s 9.

DS2 walked a few minutes home from y5 when his brother went to secondary with one reasonable road to cross. He didn't have a phone until later in y6 as he was never far from either the school office or our landline. I'd get back home 10-15 minutes after him. Many in his class were older siblings so their families were still walking that year.

My kids walk in the dark, and have done since 6/7 years old. Its dark on their way to school in winter (DS has to leave at half 7 and its very dark in the middle of winter at that time in my country), not usually dark on their way home but they walk back from friends houses in the dark (though I remember one of DS's friends last year was scared to walk home in the dark from ours so I always walked him back or his 8 year old sister would come fetch him)

It depends on the kid. My DD is a young year 5 and wasn’t ready for it this year. And we don’t live in an entirely straightforward area. We’ll work on the necessary skills over the summer and review it for Year 6.

Definitely.,

No

Yup. School runs a late bus which gets to us about 5, so I'd take my book and read in the library until it arrived. Only did it 3-4 times, as the days got longer she felt more confident. Normal school finish time has never been an issue.

All on her own I assume?

Dependant on alot of things length of walk ,her maturity ,would she have peers to walk with at least part of the way is area generally safe does she have a good understanding of danger ? If at least some of them are accurate I would agree even maybe meet her half way for first week or so and reaasess as night draw in etc xx

Definitely bonkers. My DD1 is 12 and did after school clubs in midwinter that got her back in our village at 5pm and full dark - I was only meeting her near the bus stop because she asked me to

Definitely. I'd feel more wobbly about it, maybe, but I'd still send them on their own. It's part of learning to be an adult, and holding them back does them a disservice.

This is bonkers right? She tried to have an intervention because "oh god. Dd goes out late all the time. I don't like it. This isn't a safe place for girls." Sometimes her dd just ignores her and comes back at 1am.

Yeah, though I suppose our area was pretty low traffic and relatively safe. Local traffic only. Drivers were highly likely to know that there'd be kids playing out if it wasn't raining. And there were lots of us.

Busy town you just drill into them about the different types of crossings, wait for green man, watch out for traffic and don’t rush, be slower if necessary. They soon get it.

I know someone who didn't let their DDs in year 7 go home alone after dark. As in they went to school far away that they'd be back at around 5pm. So would always pick her up or get older brother to go home with her.

Still to this day (her DD is 22) doesn't want her coming back late after dark because "what if a man decides to attack you". As in after dark she'd always pick the DD up from the station, and avoid the 10 minute walk home.

Yeah bread makers didn’t exist when I was young or else my mum would’ve bought one. I like my bread maker too. It’s good to give them options though and realise that eg if milk/butter runs out they’re more than capable of going to buy it themselves rather than their mum running ragged buying it for them. As if you don’t have enough to do first thing in the morning.

It's absolutely fine in the scenario you describe. We're half a mile from school with quiet village residential roads and then a pelican crossing for the main road. Both my kids walked alone/with friends from the first day of year 5 (DD1 is a summer birthday so had only just turned ten).

I'd have more qualms in a busy town, but even then if it's a 4 minute walk it's not a big deal. And it sets them up for going to secondary school beautifully. It's a great way to learn to loosen the parental grasp too, it feels very odd to start with, but before too long you'll be waving them off and just thinking how proud you are of your independent children.

If it’s dusk, eg turning darker, just say to keep within streets and roads with street lights. Maybe give a torch. And don’t dawdle. It’s not like vampires and ghouls will jump out and grab them in the dusk.