What age did YOU walk to school by yourself?

[StripeyKnickersSpottySocks]

Just interested how much things have changed.

I was 5 or 6 and that was in the early 1980s.

I remember that Golden, was a terrible thing but it was also an isolated incident. If that sort of thing was happening every day then I could understand the reluctance but bad things have always happened, just as accidents happen - they can't be guarded against completely. It's a bit like the mentality of a friend of mine who wouldn't allow her son to play on our climbing frame because she had heard of someone who'd broken his back falling out of one.

I still maintain that the majority of adults would stop.

age 10
in the the late 80s, abroad in a safe city

but I'm already worrying about my ds walking to school in 2 yrs time through a village with NO traffic

You do worry; and you never stop worrying no matter how old they are, I bet all our Mums had exactly the same reactions then as we do now but it was more socially accepted behaviour.

Part of being a parent is arming your children with the necessary knowledge and skills and then letting them go (whilst simultaneously crossing your fingers). The age they are safe to go at does depend on the child and only you know your own child.

10

about 4. This was in the 1960s

6 but they had a lollypop lady on the road. The road is much busier now but she isn't there any more so I wouldn't let my son do the same.

I was around 6 I think, not far to walk. I would go with a friend from my street.

age 4 - but was in a small village

I don't ever remember my Mum walking me to or from school. I have older brothers and sisters so we all went together but coming home, we just made our own way. I can clearly remember being in what would now be year 1 and coming home on my own.

We lived about 5 minutes walk and no busy roads to cross except on which had a lollipop man

my dad (b in the Thirties) used to cycle across town, on the roads , to get to his primary school. He did this from five.

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From infant school age, so about 5 in 1973. More or less all the kids in the street would walk to school together with one parent walking with them (the neighbours would take it in turns to walk us) but we always used to walk home separately on our own. There were no major roads to cross so i could in theory just follow the footpath all the way home.

when my sister started so i would have been erm 6/7. BUT if my mum legged it upstairs and looked thru our bedroom window she couldsee the schol gate so we were never really out if sight IYKWIM

mid eighties

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Don't know what age I started but I suspect my mother only walked me to school for a few weeks and then I went with a friend from next door. I can definitely remember going on my own when I was in Senior Infants so around 5/6.

More impressively, I remember getting a bus or train by myself to the nearest city (20 miles away) and then walking to the city centre from the train/bus station and getting another bus out to my cousin's house. I was 11.

I think we walked as a group at age 5-6 - certainly before 7 because that was when we moved away from the town and I remember walking in the town.

That was in the early 70's.

From about 6 or 7 in the early seventies, with minor roads to cross, though primary school was on a busy main road. About half a mile walk, maybe a bit less.

I can also remember loads of us from about that age walking out of school to buy lurid and forbidden bubblegum and hideous fizzy drinks from the local petrol station at lunchtime ! Not strictly speaking allowed, but they could easily have stopped us.

Also, when i was 9 or 10 it was commonplace to be asked by a teacher sometimes to escort a younger child home if they were ill, or had peed themselves, etc. none of this parental collection...

6, accross our council estate which was perfectly safe, in the late 70's. Walked 3 miles home from secondary school.

From about age 4/5 I walked with my older sisters. LIved directly across the road from the school.

eeee we used to stop at the BOB shop!

11 in 1991. It was a journey of about 3 miles (!) and I had to take my 8 year old sister as well. We had a childminder before then.

I was 4, in 1972. But we lived in the same road as the school. My brother had to get a train and two buses to school when he was 8.

i was 12