to ask what age you would let your child/ ren do this?

[beclev24]

There is a park round the corner from our house (no roads to cross, probably about 200 yards door to door but not visible from the house and on a different road). The park is like a kind of wild garden with trees to climb, lots of places to hide/ play hide and seek etc . Rural feel but we live in a town. What age would you let your NT DC go there alone without you to play? Would that be different with a sibling and what age/s in that case? (mine are 3 years apart) we live in a pretty safe area, and the park usually has people around in it, but not always.

8 yes
5 no

I think it very much depends on the child,but about 7/8 with an older sibling and 10 if alone. Definitely start letting your child have some independence in the year before they start secondary school though.

Not until 10, but I wouldn't send her then 7year old sister with her.

That is too much responsibility for a 10 year IMO.

All my dc have done this in year 6. However it does depend on the individual child.

8 with a group of friends.

11. But our park isn't visible from our house and involves a couple of road crossings. Drivers speed too.

Mine were 6 & 8, 2 quiet roads to cross on a quiet estate in a small town - if that makes me slightly less awful?

All their friends were allowed to do the same at the same age.

All those saying 11 - did you not get freedom before that?

Really depends on where you are. When we lived in Norway my DS would cross two roads to go to a school bus every day from the age of 6. From 7 he would take his bike and go to nearby park on his own.
Then we moved to London and it all stopped. Next time I allowed him to go on his own he was 12 🙂

People who say 12, there's a road to cross... how do your dc get to school? Please don't say you walk them half a mile cause they can't cross the road! Dear lord.

OP I'm with most others, would say 8/9 with friend, 10/11 plus 7/8yo sibling.

mikulkin how did that work in practice? Didn't your son feel like a prisoner? We live in Germany and my 7 year old takes himself to school, I wave him off to walk to the bus stop, and yes there is one road to cross although I can see the bus stop from the door if it's light. Unfortunately we live 3 miles from school so he has to be picked up from after school club, because I work and their are no buses to our village in the afternoon. He rides his bike to his best friend at the other end of the village if it's light. I can't imagine how stifled he'd feel if we moved back to the UK, or how much harder playdates would be if rowdy 7 year olds couldn't just be told to go and play outside!

My question would be if the 8 year old fell out a tree and hurt himself....what would happen? - so a lot of the answers are yes let them go if they are with friends....do you trust that friend to do the right thing and vice versa. If you sent 8 and 5 year old together would the 5 year old be able to cope in an emergency. (I let me 6 year old go and play football with his older brother on a field near us ...but not go to the park further away, in case he gets to brave and hurts himself...and he's not old enough to come back by himself if something happened to big brother.)

My dd and her friend have gps watch you and they can call on.

user1474894224 My sporty 11 year old ds broke his ankle playing kick about football while his big sister was training in another pitch. DD's 14 year old friend broke her wrist playing football last weekend, and a couple of years ago another of her friends was accidentally kicked in the head and knocked out for several minutes. You're kidding yourself if you think your older child couldn't hurt themselves on a football field.

@blueskiesandforests sorry wasn't clear. I agree accidents can happen anywhere...even outside the house. But the football field is much closer. (They also go with other kids from the street)