Growing up, what age would you have been allowed to do these things?

[Justanotheremma13]

I’m in my early 40s. I was having a conversation with my mum and my sister. My sister doesn’t have any children and we were speaking about my ds and about my niece. My sister was slagging my sil off.

Anyway, growing up I was allowed to do the following.

Walk home from school at age 10/11, from school year 6.
Catch the bus to my local high street at age 10/11, it was about 4 bus stops. We’d go and spend our pocket money in the shops and market.
Catch the bus or walk to go swimming with my friends at age 10/11.
Be left home alone while my parents went for an evening out from age 12.
Catch the bus to the big shopping mall from age 12.
Babysit for my young cousin from age 13/14.

All of this was fine but my mum says she has no recollection. My sister was slating my sil for allowing her child to have a mobile phone and walk to the local shops and I pointed out that we were allowed to do much more at a younger age and that I actually think kids are far more protected and mollycoddled these days.

Walk home from school - N/A as it was far so we had to drive

Catch the bus to my local high street - 14

Catch the bus or walk to go swimming with my friends - never iirc! Mum and dad so focused on water safety

Be left home alone while my parents went for an evening out - 15, probably because my sister would have been 12 and that’s the youngest they would have left me in charge of her

Catch the bus to the big shopping mall - n/a none near us

Babysit for my young cousin - not a cousin but I babysat the kid across the road at 14. But it was literally across the road, our WiFi still connected to my laptop 😂

Born 1989

I’ve just started to let my 10 year old go out with friends in our village. Lots of my friends have said they think he’s too young. At that age I was catching a bus into town.
I think we do tend to be overprotective now, it is hard to judge ‘when’ is the right time.
id just prefer he was outside and with friends rather than stuck in his room on a computer. I think there are risks with both but more benefits to being outside and sociable.

I'm slightly younger than you.

My school expected all children (where possible) to walk home on their own from age 9.
Into the city about age 11, same with going to the cinema etc.
Left home alone, eh... Probably also about 11. I've never babysat anyone in my life.

Walk home from school - age 7
Bus to town - 11 (it was a 50 minute journey)
Swimming - parents always had to take as there was no bus in that direction
Home alone in evening - 12, as my younger sister was only 8 so they were leaving both of us together.
Babysitting from age 14 for neighbours kids.

I'm mid 50s.

I’m 37 (my sister is 39) we had a general rule of thumb that if we’re together we could do what the “older” sibling was allowed to do, so from 13 my sister could walk home from school, catch a bus to town, go to the park, cinema, swimming etc, so therefore I could also do those things at age 11 without an adult, however I needed to wait until I was 13 to do them on my own.

My DH always ask if I’ve checked if my sister is available to chaperone when I say “I’m just popping to town” or “I’ll have to get the bus” 😂

I'm early 40s

Walk home from school at age 8/9, from school year 4

Catch the bus to my local high street at age 10/11, it took 2 buses and they only came once and hour. I had to do the journey alone as all my friends lived in the other direction.

Catch the bus to go swimming with my friends at age 10/11 again 2 buses.

Be left home alone while my parents went for an evening out from age 7/8 my brother was 10/11.

Catch the bus to the big shopping mall from age 10/11 again 2 buses.
.
Babysit for neighbours from age 11/12.

You’re right, we were far more capable and independent than this generation at a younger age but it’s a difficult balance to strike.

I lived miles from anywhere as a child so I didn't have much freedom to come and go because I needed lifts but we were definitely dropped off in town or at the sports centre age 10/11 and picked up later. Was also left home alone for a few hours at that age.

My 10yo (year 6) now has a similar level of freedom to cycle to a friends house or a shop and meet mates at the park and has a phone. He's not taken a bus in to town on his own yet but he'll do that soon as he'll be off to secondary school in September.

Wrapping kids up in cotton wool is not generally a good idea. Its preferable to gradually increase the freedom they have and access to things like phones in a slow and controlled way so they can take each new learning experience on safely before the next.

I should add. My kids all walked home alone from Y4 (village location).
We'd leave them alone at home for up to an hour from about age nine. Playing out with friends was a similar age.

Walk home from school - 10, but it was on the next street
Catch the bus to go into town - 11 as long as my brother was there too (he was 9). It was about twenty mins on the bus, probably about three miles (we missed it back and had to walk once).
Be left home alone while my parents went for an evening out - this didn't happen as my other brother was nine years younger than me
Babysitting for neighbours - 14. Taking the smallest brother to nursery by myself (about half hour walk) - 11.
Walking a neighbours dog for hours by myself - 9
I'm 37.

Walk to school, age 8, big group of us, 3 minute walk.
knock for friends, go to the park/swimming, age 9.
Catch a bus/train, age 11.
Babysitting, age 13.
Born 1982.
My son was born 2002 and I let him walk to school with friends, go and play football in the park from age 10.

born in 76. Was doing all of that about 11ish. Had loads of freedom and I loved it. Was also cooking roast dinners at 12

I did all that except babysitting.

I'm sure that everyone will say I'm lying but. Went on the bus to school alone from 6 , was taken to the bus stop by my Gran and met by my cousin who was about 9 .

Went swimming with the same cousin from around 9 .
Went into central Manchester with a friend at 11 .
Looked after my sister for a short amount of time from about 9 .

Born 1951

Bus to town at age 9. I went to a middle school so caught the public bus service to school 3 miles away in the local town. It was a 1/2 mile walk to the bus stop at each end.

I’m 64. I walked home in primary, guess 10ish? Possibly before as I don’t actually remember my mother collecting me. We were the generation where you played out till dinner time too.
I was babysitting at night at 12!
My DH was left at age 5 with his brother age 2 for the evening. At 12 he was in charge of his brother on the ski slopes for the day. He recalls he lost their ski lift passes but his parents didn’t realise for three days. He also flew on his own from age 8 - he was a child model and says the supervision at the shoot was pretty loose. I flew internationally on my own from age 14 - and then got myself from Heathrow to Cambridge on my own too.
My cousin was put on the train at age 5 and met the other end by an aunt. This would have been in the 60s. Not uncommon.

Walk home from school 7/8 - but it was at the end of my road
Bus to city centre - 11, that one sticks out as I was in an accident the first time!
Left home alone - probably around 11, but I was in high school then
Babysit for my siblings 11/12, both my parents worked and childcare just wasn’t a thing, when we were all young my mum worked nights or term time
Play out - late primary school. All my friends lived within a few streets away.
walk or get bus to local shopping centre - last year of primary.

I’m in my 50’s so this was early/mid 80s. Working class estate, everyone knew everyone. You couldn’t get up to much without the whole street knowing about it. Someone was always washing their windows or cleaning their stair or going to and from the shops on the bus.

Born late 60s.

Walk home from school - age 7, a quiet village. Moved to a busier village aged 9 and was walking to and from school from day 1.

Catching the bus into town- aged 11.

Not needing a baby sitter - aged 11 but almost 12.

Babysitting for cash from age 15.

Born in the 80’s

Walked to and from school from year 5.
Bus in to town from about 11
Bus to a large shopping centre an hour away from 13.
Train to the nearest big city from 14
Babysitting for cash from 14.

My parents never went out so we never had a babysitter

My mum used to let me walk to the shops to buy three pounds of King Edwards spuds and a white sliced loaf on Monday mornings during the school holidays when I was five or six. I cycled to school with a friend from when I was six, and when I moved school, I used to catch the train for three stops to school from just after I was seven, and then do a ten minute walk home from the station when I got home. I used to disappear for hours on end in the summer to play in the fields behind our house from when I was about 6, and I used to catch the bus for a 15 minute journey to and from the riding school on Saturdays. I can remember buying a red bus rover ticket and spending the day going round London with my friend when I was 11 on a couple of occasions. This was all in the 1960s and I don’t remember ever being worried about safety at all. I don’t remember my parents ever leaving me at home if they went out in the evening until I was in my teens. But I can’t imagine the circumstances when I would have let my daughter do any of these things when she was a similar age.

My mum was saying that there’s no way she’d have left me home alone at age 11/12 and she said that she always got a babysitter.

But I was at secondary school by then. I have clear memories of my parents going out and me being left home with some snacks and films to watch, I’d fall asleep on the sofa and my dad would carry me to bed when he got home.

It wasn’t very often because they hardly went out, but it definitely
did happen.

I’m older than you o.

Walk home from school at age 6-7.
Catch the bus to my local high street- I don’t remember. I didn’t live anywhere near a big town so I could walk to the local shops.
I do remember catching buses from around age 12 with my cousins.
Catch the bus or walk to go swimming. I didn’t live far from the swimming baths so was allowed to walk from a young age. Definitely primary school age. I think around age 8 I could just go with friends, and walk there and back.

Be left home alone while my parents went for an evening out. Not until I was a lot older. I didn’t like being left alone at night though. I was definitely a teenager before I was left and not a young teenager.
Catch the bus to the big shopping mall. Around 12/13
Babysit. Never did this. I was very close in age to all my cousins though.

I agree, I had much more freedom at my dds age (11) than she does now.
She can walk to school on her own, swimming or local high street. I don’t know why as she has a mobile, that I didn’t have.

it’s not that she’s looking for more freedom/responsibility. She doesn’t se to have much interest in going further but i assume it’s cos none of her friends do.

funnily enough, my mum was surprised my Dd was doing a 5 minute walk and getting a school run bus at age 10. I pointed out that at her age I was walking double the distance and getting a public transport bus!

I used to go with friends to the cinema etc without parents from around the age of 12.
I went out drinking in pubs from around the age of 15. We didn’t need ID, we just used to say we were 18.

Oh yes my mum commented on the fact that I let Ds walk to rugby practice alone when he was 13. It was broad daylight and we lived directly behind the rugby ground.
I was allowed to walk anywhere long before I was 13.