to ask would you let a 7 year old travel on the bus alone

[ghostspirit]

im half watching loose woman. and one of the panel was saying how she lets her 7 year old go to school on the bus on his own to school she knows hes safe because he comes back. she then said how he sneaked out of the house to go on a play date at 8 in the evening. (she thought he was in bed)

maybe it depends on where people live what sort of jurney it is... i would not do it though

Bertie There are school buses in Germany, for children who live more than 2km from the closest school in a location not served by public transport. One picks up from all the local villages every morning and waits outside school at 11.20, 12.15 and 1pm to take the children from the tiniest villages and hamlets, too small to have their own schools and more than 2km from the nearest school, back home. In our area there is a specific small yellow mini bus for the nearest special school too as it picks up kids from a huge catchment area - the special school Vorschule kids catch it too (I assume because the school serves a larger geographical area than the mainstream Kindergartens), whereas there are no special buses for mainstream Kindergartens.

Secondary school kids get a free bus pass to ride the public bus and generally have to walk to and from the nearest stop.

In Tokyo children as young as 3 travel to and from school/ Kindergarten without adults, and as young as 5 take the Tokyo subway. There was an article on social trust doing the roundswhich discussed it - interestingly the parents almost universally said they wouldn't allow their children to travel independently outside Japan, even if the language were not an issue.

You can't judge others meaningfully without understanding the social context of where they live, and though Japan might be a very distinct example, but European countries can be just as different from one another and even within the UK there are absolutely enormous differences between localities.

www.citylab.com/commute/2015/09/why-are-little-kids-in-japan-so-independent/407590/

Ah I just meant in our area :) Here school aged children can get a paid for public transport pass but it's free if they live a certain distance from the school and the school wasn't their closest option for some reason (I think - not entirely sure on this).

There is an accessible bus which picks up on our road but I don't know whether it takes children to a special school. I thought so but DH mentioned it the other day and he thinks not.

Oh god that video on that article has just made me BLUB