7 year old walking home from school alone

[friendshipstruggle]

In a nice area, the school is within the housing estate with 1 small road to cross. The 7 year old is sensible, in Y3, but only just turned 7. Is it unreasonable to allow him to walk home with no adult? The parents around here have wildly opposing views on this and I'm interested to hear a wider opinion.

Nope, no way... too young.

My DDs school won't allow kids to walk home alone until year 5.

I don't see how some posters can state categorically that it's too young, as if it's not opinion, just fact. For me it depends on the school, the individual child, the route home, lots of things which strangers on the internet can't judge for you..

In my DC primary school (inner London) we were instructed in Yr 5 that children should be making their way to school on their own - as preparation for the much longer and complicated journeys the majority would be making at secondary school that would involve buses, trains and tubes. Mine went to school on their own from Yr 3 (but an "old" Yr 3), but then we only lived five minutes away.

I would be in all the schools here it's Y5 and above, even with an older child. So strict that my friends Y3 wasn't allowed to walk home with her Y6 brother when their Mum had a knee op and wasn't allowed to walk for 3 weeks!!

I look at the children's risk data a lot at the moment, as I am carrying out related academic research, and statistically it's no more dangerous to let your child walk to school in England than in Germany, but in Germany everyone walks to school in little groups of 4 or so pretty much from the age of 7.

Main things to be scared of in children's lives, statistically speaking: driving around in cars with them, letting them near roads, bouncy castles.

Main things that are so rare it's actually not worth being very scared: stranger danger ('molestation' appears to be the technical term in the risk literature)

I did and of course we all did back in the day. This is the 1960s in Australia that Im talking about. I however didnt let my children walk home alone at such a young age because i knew that sometimes situations were testy. Like the bloke stopping the car to offer a lift. The bullies tormenting you as you walked home and worrying that you might not get there. People following you.

Personally I would feel there was something very wrong with how I've set up my priorities if that was a necessity. But out of choice, with another child and for a short distance I might have allowed it.

BUT what is the school like for absense? If dc didn't make it to school would you know? It would be the worst thing to get there at the end of the day and find out they never arrived. My dc's primary school DIDN'T contact parents about a one day absence.

In your situation I would definitely allow, indeed encourage, him to do walk home alone. Probably starting off by meeting him at the road.

I would walk with him and then meet him half way maybe and gradually build it up.

I think we mollycoddle children far too much.

When my DDs were at primary school, there was a German child who was in the UK for 2 years. His mother let him walk to school aged 8 and the school called her in to say it wasn't acceptable. It was about a quarter of a mile on residential roads, no busy roads to cross. The mum was totally bewildered and explained that in Germany, children of his age would be catching buses to school on their own, not just walking.

If you and your DS are happy, go for it and ignore the criticisms.

I would. I agree with the PP about mollycoddling. I really don't get why the UK is so out of step with the rest of Europe. I let my DS cycle unaccompanied to the local library from age 8. Age 10, he does the shopping if asked. His previous school encouraged them to walk there alone from Y2. Sadly, his current school is 5 miles away and not on a bus route so he can no longer go alone. I am a firm believer in fostering independence.

My 7 year old has just started year 3.
He wanted to meet me in the school carpark on Thursday , it's a 2 minute walk across the playground and then down a path with a high fence either side so you can only go to and from school. He has been doing that walk with me since he was a baby and his older sister was at that school.
He got lost( still no idea how)
Luckily he knew to go back to the main office and I found him there, a bit tearful.
Based on that I would say it's too young.

In short no. My dd is 9 and i wont be letting her anytime soon. In fairness, we have an extremely busy road to cross with lots of lorries and no crossing person. Its 10 minutes walking from our house.

I wouldn't, DS does not have the road sense to do it yet.

I walked to and from school (1.5 miles each way) at that age.

I wouldn't have allowed my DD to do the same, and she was picked uni every day even though the walk home would've been very easy. I don't think the school would release them unless accompanied by a parent/teenage sibling until Year 6.

No, my school would never allow it and neither would I.

yes, yes, we all did it in the bloody 70's . Not the point.

In some countries this would be normal for a 7 year old to walk to school. But not here.

Never in a million years would I let my 7 year old walk home alone - I am just amazed that anyone would. It's known that children have no ability to judge traffic at a young age and that's without any other dangers out there. They are still babies at 7 and in my mind it's neglect. Especially since there is an adult at home to greet that child - not meeting them at school and walking home with them it just laziness. Our school will not allow them to walk home alone before year 5 and even then most of the teachers are not happy that the children are old enough. My 7 year old is still so little - they have no life skills at that age and to be forced to find their own way home is not fair

My nearly 7 year old would be capable of walking home safely as long as he didn't have to cross the road, but I wouldn't let him. Its not about him, its about other people, and he would not be able to deal with a difficult situation. I live in a very busy area though. Surprisingly a lot of parents in my area let their children walk to school and cross busy roads at around age 5. I'm not a particularly precious parent, but I think its quite odd. One little girl got hit by a lorry a few years back, it dragged her down the road somehow and didn't even notice her. She was ok, aside from the life changing injuries that it... It puzzles me why people still let their very young children do it though.

We possibly live in very different areas but I wouldn't. My daughter didn't do what you are saying till she was in year 6. She has just started secondary now and she is more than ready for further freedoms, which she is getting bit by bit. I don't see the rush personally but others may class me as over protective. I also know people older than me that talk of when they walked to school on their own from when they were tiny.

Developmentally I think about 8 is a good age if the traffic isn't oppressive. Parents should be more confident about organising little groups of kids to walk together and training them to stay out of trouble. The Germsn mother was quite reasonable, the school were fuelling the flames of paranoia.

I was in Finland last year and it's unheard of to mollycoddle kids - even five year olds just headed off on bikes on their own to run little errands and so on. Completely normal.

We could solve the s hook run traffic problem at a stroke if schools were less interfering.

I would be okay with that

Ds is 27 now and I used to let him out to play at 7

As long as your Ds has good road sense as that would be the main concern for me. I don't buy into stranger danger, its a big myth.
Children are more at risk from rtheir own family members than strangers on the street. So, he's probably less safe when he arrives home than on the walk from school

I have decided to allow my 7yr old to walk 5 mins out of the school gates with my 12 yr old, twice a week, to meet me at an arranged place. There is a lollipop lady to cross the road, loads and loads of parents around, and I have no option as I am coming from work to meet them. My 12 yr old will meet him inside the school grounds and walk with him. Doesn't seem any different to your scenario OP and I think it will be fine. I wouldn't let him his own though, if eldest DS cannot meet him I have friends who will hang on to him until I get there.