to think its wrong to let a 6 year old and 8 year old ride to school on their own

[SingleMum01]

Over a busy main road too? They are also frequently left alone with a 3 year old while their parents go shopping!

YANBU, and leaving them alone with a 3 year old, you are defiantly NBU

Depending upon the level of maturity of the 6 and 8 year old I don't think is wrong to let them go to school on their own. I was regularly walking 1 mile to school on my own from the age of 7 (no older siblings at the school to accompany me, unlike here where there is an 8 year old eldest sibling). I think is sad that the thing that will probably stop me affording dd the same freedom when she is 7 or 8 is the fear of being judged by other parents. So YABU in that respect, in my opinion.

I don't think that they should have charge of a 3 year old though - so YANBU there.

Message withdrawn

Walking to school - depends on maturity.

Riding to school on busy road - not on.

Leave alone with 3 yr old - not on.

YAmainlyNU

it would depend on the child.
if I felt my kids were responsible enough and had good road sense and there was a crossing/lollipop lady then I would.

so many different factors though

yanbu - and regardless of maturity not on to make an 8yo responsible for 6yo and 3yo. Would be neglectful leave unsupervised at home, why are roads ok?

Exactly thisisyesterday - there are loads of factors to take into account. I don't personally think that a blanket ban on an 8 year old going to school with a 6 year old is reasonable. Depends on the child and the route.

My dd will soon be 6. There is no way that I'd let her go on her own - because she would be on her own (no other children), because is a 1 mile journey, because I know she isn't mature enough and cannot be trusted to cross busy roads (has pretty dire road sense still). Horse for courses and all that. She still can't ride a bike as well, so no chance of her cycling there!

I agree though that a 6 yr old and an 8 yr old should definitely not have responsibility for the care of a 3 year old. No way jose.

YANBU. Primary schools around here insist that under 8.s are bought to school by an adult. Also a 6 and 8 year pld should not be riding on busy roads, The advice here is not to let them ride on roads until they are 10 and only then if they have done a cycle proficency course,

I just can't imagine whilst DD (currently 8.5) is in primary allowing or expecting her to walk herself to school. Not only is it just under a mile away but I just feel she is too young to have to deal with London traffic all alone when some drivers don't even seem to have an idea that a pedestrian crossing means stop and that the green man means pedestrians can cross safely without a car creeping forward in an intimidating manner and let us not even begin to talk about those that think indicators are there simply to beutify the inside of their cars.

I found it irritating that our old school would only let children walk in from the age of 10. We lived 5 mins walk down the road with a lollipop lady on the only crossing and both my children (probably 7 and 8 at the time) could have managed that fine. Now we live in a more rural area (we were SE London) it is expected that children get themselves to school and back from 7ish or so, and I often see large number of children walk in as I drive to work (my children cycle). But all children go to their local school, and beyond a certain distance they get a school bus, so it is very much the norm. Everyone drives very slowly around schools (it's highly enforced) and because most kids walk there are far fewer cars in any case.

Being responsible for a three year old is unfair and probably unsafe though.

YANBU, there is a 7 year old boy from our school who lives just one street away from the school. He has just started riding to school on his own.

A few weeks ago he rode out in front of a car which hit him, luckly the car was going really slow, as most people do around schools etc so his injurys weren't life threatening but they were still pretty bad. He had 2 black eyes, fractured his cheek bone and had his front teeth knocked out.

His face was swollen beyond recognition, he really was in a right mess!

I think YABU, tbh (although not about the looking after 3 year olds thing - that's just not a good idea at all).

My DS is 9 and had been walking to school on his own since he was 8. He has to cross a main road (albeit with a pelican crossing) and there's a lollipop lady to help him across the road out of school. It's quite a long walk, but he's perfectly responsible about it. Indeed, I think that being allowed to walk to and from school on his own has been really positive for him; it's given him confidence.

However, as thisisyesterday said, it does depend on all sorts of factors. Just over a year ago we moved to suburbia from the inner city. To get to his old school, DS and I had to walk about 2 miles (because the school across the road from our flat was full) and cross a number of major roads. We often had to walk in the dark (which doesn't happen so often here because it's significantly further south and he doesn't need to leave so early in the morning to get there on time). Also, his school was right next to a number of major tourist attractions, so it was often difficult to get through the crowds on the pavements just so you could get home. For all these reasons (and others), I wouldn't have let him walk to school on his own at any point in primary school. It's much quieter where we live now, and he's perfectly safe walking to school on his own so he does.

Where in the world are you?
I remember being shocked in Germany that people only walk their child to school on their first day (or at least that was normal where I lived). They then left chalk trails or painted footprints incase the child couldn't remember the way home from then on. It seems to be perfectly normal and accepable, although children start school at 6 there so I suppose it's too shocking. Are the parents English? It might just be a cultural difference. My dh is German and he can't understand the school run at all, or why it is necessary for an adult to be there for the child to be allowed to leave. In some countries it's just different.

That's supposed to say ''not too shocking''.
Just read this out to dh though, and he said that on the way to primary school he would meet up with friends and sometimes they'd get so distracted by playing (if there was snow or something) that they would be an hour or more late to school! And the school wouldn't even contact the parents, they just gave him a letter saying he'd been late to give them which he never passed on for fear of getting in to trouble!! Maybe the health and saftel culture here isn't so bad! I dread to think of what could have happened to them, and he's only 26 now so it's not that long ago really.

Message withdrawn

I dont think that they should walk or ride at that age. If something happened to them both, the parents wouldn't know until home time or the school phoned to enquire about them.

Having said that I am thinking about inner London and the fact that I do not believe it is safe.

The riding is fine.

The 3yr kid thing is not. But how do you know this is the case? You haven't told us any details.

mine walked to school (1 mile) by themselvse - YABU

Shoudlnt be left with a 3 year old though - YANBU