To think an 11yr old can take a bus on their own?

[user1490465531]

To think an 11 yr old can get the bus on their own?
For context I think my 11 yr old dd is old enough to take the bus on her own with same age friend and go to the local shopping centre or swimming baths without me always needing to be there.
Both are one short bus journey away and I think it's important to get some independence before she starts secondary school in September when she will be getting the bus on her own to and from school.
However she is horrified by the idea I think mainly because she's never travelled by herself.
AIBU to think she's old enough or what age is deemed old enough.
She is my only child so got nothing to compare her with.

Absolutely not! Some of the responses on here are disturbing.... Especially the one about the 10yr old on the tube alone in central London wtf??? There are predators and dangerous people out there! You wouldn't leave a 10/11yr old alone at home so why allow them to be alone on the streets or on public transport where the risks are substantially higher?! Absolute madness

I think many of us would and do leave a ten or eleven year old home on their own

A school bus is the only bus I would allow at that age. Purely because it picks up at school and drops off near to home. No strangers or weirdos are picked up along the way.
It's not my DD I don't trust, it's other people.

@2019Dancerz Not for more than an hour or two, surely??

Yes around two hours, but that’s not what you said! Loads of risks at home too. I want to teach mine to do things in advance of when he absolutely needs to. For instance, there’s no school buses here so it needs to be a local one. But I wouldn’t let him get a bus into the city centre and hang out with friends, no.

mummylife
dc need to learn independence outside parental supervision.
in small steps, but taking the tube outside rush hour is fine once dc know what do do in various situations.
teach sensible advice, like don't get into a carriage where there is only one other passenger, keep away from loud male groups, leave the phone in the pocket etc...alternative routes in case trains are cancelled...