Okay so dd is 10. She's been asking for a while now if she can call for her friends who live in the village. She see's boys from her class quite often around the village on their own or in a group wandering / playing. A few of her friends are also allowed to to this. We let her play out the front of the house, but don't let her past the street, her friends can come & play. The park isn't far at all, but you can't see them walk there, there's no roads to cross, but still we're uneasy about letting her go alone, we've let her walk up with her friends as it's less than a minute away & one of us has always followed.
She feels we are treating her like a baby because we don't let her call for her friends, some live further away in the village. Some of them tease her at school saying that they can go anywhere & she can't, it's upsetting her a lot. She's really angry at us for stopping her, but we've told her it's not because we're doing it to be cruel but because we care & just don't think at 10 she's ready yet to be wandering the streets alone. Some of it is trust I know, can we trust that she'd go straight to her friends, yes, but then if her friends wanted to go further afield, would she follow or not, knowing she's not allowed? Then there's the stranger danger side too, which just reinforces our decision to not let her go off.
Part of us thinks she's too young. But then I can see her upset, It's everyday. I know she wants that bit of freedom & at the same time we need to have that peice of mind knowing she's safe.