At what age did your kids get themselves to school?

[lking12]

Exactly that.
At the moment my husband is home based worker. This works great as he gets the kids breakfast and does the school run.
But he isn’t very well paid.

I’m wondering at what age would you be happy for your kids to sort themselves out in the morning? In the meantime I guess it’s a childminder situation if he moved?

These replies have really surprised me! I was doing the walk to school alone at 6 (so year 2 I believe?) and getting myself up and ready by myself by age 9. I'm only in my 20s now so it wasn't exactly that long ago!
That being said, my mum was a bit useless so probably not best to follow her lead. Personally I would probably let my kids (currently not yet school age) walk alone depending on distance from about 9/10 years old, and expect them to be responsible enough to be able to get out of bed, dressed and fed by the start of secondary school.

Depends on the child, DC1 no issues and could have done this from Yr7. DC2 would probably still be in bed when I got back from work. He was and still is a night owl. Early starts are not his thing at all.
However, due to school start times both had to be out before I left for work.

Depends on your children. I doubt my daughter would be able to get herself ready in the morning even in 5 years time 😂 (she's 10). She's fine being by herself and sorting herself out for an hour or so after school though.

Depends on the child.

ds1 (now 17) would have been fine doing this from y7upwards
ds2 (15yo) would never get up or off to school if left to his own devices

Dd goes to middle school in September she will be 9,I'm uncomfortable with this but she will actually have to lock up and get her self of to school as I have to leave out at 8am to get the 3 youngest into first school.

Depends on lots of factors - how far away is school and how early would your hubby leave being the biggest ones. I have been letting my child walk 6 -7 minutes to school and back with a friend since he was 8 in year 4. I was in when he left and returned though. He's going into year 6 now (10.5) and he will do the same, but still not from/to an empty house. When he gets to year 7 (11-12) he will do a 20-25 min walk on his own, but I reckon not with more than 30mins on his own at each end of the day.

Year 5 walk themselves. Year 6 get themselves up dressed and to school on time. Also home after school and wait until parents come home.

Though I was getting myself to and from school from year 5 so lord knows why they can’t these days

I dint think a Yr 6 should have to regularly get up without a parent, dress etc take them selves to school and then come to an empty house.

Yr 6 is when our school let people walk home but we'd still use afterschool club if I wasn't home.

Yr 7/secondary much more independence but still wouldn't like mine getting up and out alone in the mornings.

And when I was at school I walked home from about 11 but wasn't expected to get up and put alone. Tbh I don't know anyone who was ( Lots more part time working for "mums" when I was at primary. Less childcare options etc)

All of them from year 5.

Walked to school alone / with friends from 10 but couldn't sort herself out in the morning even now at 15 she would still be in bed when school finished

Depends on the journey…ours is 2 miles through busy city roads so totally different to if it were 5mins in side streets.

End of year 3 but school weren't happy. I'm hoping he can in September when he's in year 5.

My kids are 15 and 13
I leave the house for work 25 mins before they go to school.
I made sure they are up and dressed before I go, but they fix themselves breakfast and get themselves to school which is a 10 min walk away.
We started doing this about a year ago.

Oh blimey- I wouldn't have trusted my DC until 6th form Actually DS2 would have been OK from Y8 if he'd had to.

I think most DC could get themselves to school from Y9 onwards.

I would say from year 8/9 they would be able to get themselves up, ready and out of the door. My 11yo is about to go in to year 7 and I have to get her up every morning, but she would be ok to get herself out of the door and to school on time if I had to leave before her.

Where are you? The school my children went to had to have an adult drop them off and pick them up until year 3 and after that they still preferred an adult at least dropped them off. Couldn't imagine walking to school alone at 6 but I suppose it depends how far and how busy the roads are.

Mine walked herself to first school in Y4, aged 8 and a half. That was after Christmas; I had to spend the first couple of weeks shadowing her, as she gets distracted by all sorts. A ten minute walk.

I walked her to middle school for the first two days, last September and on the second, she went mad at me, as hardly any other kids had parents tagging along!

I wouldn't trust her to get up and ready, without chivvying.

Is £12.50 just for breakfast club or does that include evening wrap around too?
Would you be entitled to tax free childcare to bring the cost down?
To make it clear you have 3 primary aged children and the 9 month old? Otherwise you wouldn’t be paying wrap around for all of them. Depending on age gaps remember that they won’t all be at primary school together forever.
I use to get to the bus stop and get the bus to school in year 7. My Mum was usually at home in the morning when I left but I would get myself home and be alone until usually around 7pm.

I managed to do those things from the age of 9 (and walked alone to school from the age of 7 but parents supervised waking up and breakfast) but don't expect your children to just be able to do it when the time comes. Obviously, everything needs to be practiced before your husband actually changes the job. So if you want them to do it eventually, you need to practice these skills using backward chaining. For example, you first wake them up and supervise breakfast, getting dressed but let them leave by themselves and lock the door. Then you only supervise getting up and breakfast and let them get dressed and leave. Then only wake them up etc.
My parents would let me cook breakfast on weekends so I had some basic cooking skills. And I had freedom to chose my own clothes to wear from the age of 5 (parents supervised to make sure it was weather-appropriate). The answer to your question will depend on how much time you spent working on independence skills with your kids to date.

Your SEVENTEEN year old couldn’t get themselves up and out?? My DD went to Berlin by herself at 16 and joined the RAF at 17.

I think you need to tech this young person some self responsibility

I find that baffling but then I was a mum myself by the time I was 18. I don't wake my 15yo, he's expected to do it himself. I'd feel like I was babying him if I had to wake him up.

Just the walk to school: 9am.
Wake up, breakfast, get dressed, grab lunch and remember PE kit: 11/12 (Y7).

I had a baby when I was 18 so I had a lot of responsibility at that age, I couldn't imagine a world where my mum had to wake me up at that age but I guess that's due to different life experiences. Still while I would not want my own DS having kids at that age like I did I certainly wouldn't be waking him up in the mornings, I don't do it now and he's 15, I'd rather teach him independence. A lot of kids can't seem to do anything for themselves these days.

9yrs old not 9am 🙂

Tho DD knows kids who were still being driven to school in Y11 despite our small catchment (South London, lots of buses to choose from.)