How independent is your 11 year old?

[Goodluckjonathan76]

Just wondered how much independence is appropriate for a fairly mature 11.5 year old boy. Can he go to the shops by himself, for example, walk to/from school or take the tube?

My DD was crossing London (with several changes) on her own for a year at that age. She'd been going to the shops on her own for some time longer. Unless you have reason to believe he can't be trusted to cross roads, etc, safely (or there are SEN reasons) there's no reason he couldn't do any of those things.

All of those things should be commonplace, not just appropriate by 11.5

I think this really does depend on the child, and what they are used to. It really doesn't matter what people on here say. Ask your son what he feels comfortable with, and support him to do that. My daughter really wanted to be independent at 9 years old! We had to rein her in a little. My son is about to turn 9 and the thought of being alone for 10 minutes is awful for him. We are all different....

It depends where you live too. My DS is 11, and I'd be quite happy with him popping to the shops on his own - except that we live out in the sticks and it would be a 40 minute walk each way on country roads with no pavements. Ditto walking home from school - added to the fact that I'm there anyway picking up his younger siblings in the car.

He does cycle to/from school on his own sometimes, and I leave him home alone for up to an hour. In Sept he'll be going to secondary school on the bus on his own.