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 was about 7,before then I lived too far away from the school.This was in the 60's

used to walk to church on our own (4 sisters) I was about 5/6, sisters were 10,12 and 14) I loved really annoying them on the way. Was a whole hours walk there and another hour back!

I had to do it alone from the age of 9, because my sister went to secondary school, and mum went to college the same year.
I was nervous already but it was terrifying...desolate and lonely. I had to leave the house when everyone else was gone.

Sometimes I tagged along with another group of kids with someone's mum...but usually felt too embarrassed to do so.

The rest of the time I remember looking at the setting sun and dark clouds and thinking there had been a nuclear explosion, or a big fire - one day there had been a massive fire at a warehouse which freaked me right out as I was always scared of fire.

So I didn't enjoy walking to school.

One day I counted my own steps, it was well over a thousand. I was so lonely.

Oh and it was in 1982.

I was seven, but that was nearly a hundred years ago when horses ruled the roads.

Early 80's for me and I was 6/7 ish. school at end of long road.

8 yrs more or less, school 3 mins walk. Milan, Italy 1978

I didn't walk to school on my own until I went to Secondary school, as I had a younger brother and sister at primary school so we all went there together.

My dd (10) walks to and from school now.

I was the youngest of 4 & we all walked together - my eldest DB was 6 years older than me & my sister a year older, so I didn't start walking on my own until my last year at primary, when I was just 10.
At secondary school, the nearest stop for the school bus was 2 miles away down a very winding road - my dad left for work too early to take us & my mum didn't have a car - so sometimes we walked, sometimes got a lift with another parent.

In my first year at secondary I went to a tennis course at school & walked home from the bus stop & was followed by a slightly strange man who kept asking me if I had any boyfriends - I was embarrassed rather than frightened & stopped off at my mum's friend's house to get rid of him (she was out but I lurked round the back till he'd gone.)I didn't think to tell my parents, but they got a phone call from a local farmer that evening to say he'd seen the guy following me and had been following us himself with his shotgun, just in case.

Oh I did, I did, Wisty! And I had to walk through an old, abandoned saw mill where ancient spiked things could have dropped on my head and killed me at any moment! And then through the churchyard ... oh, it was thrilling !!

From aged 5. I would cross the road right outside our house and then cross the main road with the Lollipop lady!

My mum caught a bus to school aged 5 on her own - but that was during the 1940s and it was with all the children who lived in the same road.

yeah but me and rant had our own personal FLASHER..........

You know what, Wisty! You always have to go one better than me, dontcha!

I walked from the start tho I was with my 2yr older sister, so I was 5.

It was about 3/4 of a mile down a road which is very busy now but not so much then.

TBH my main concern is not abductors but traffic. Of course one reason there is so much more (making it more dangerous to walk to school, even accompanied) is that so many peopel drive their kids to school now. Ironic, non?

Never ! School was always too far. Did take the bus when I was about 13 or 14 and sometimes walked home in 6th form.

5 in 1982.

I was supposed to walk with my bro who would have been 7 but because he was with his friends I used to just walk behind them.

I'm sure my mum would have walked me but my sis was born on my first day of school so I imagine it would have been a struggle.

i must have been 7 or 8 in mid 80's

Wisteria, sorry I had to go out so didn't answer you.

I think people don't get involved these days in case they are accused of something, or in case it is some kind of a trap.

We all walk past people begging in the street, maybe we have all walked past someone who appeared to be unconscious (ie drunk) and left them there, and although these are obviously adults, I think we have got into a culture of ignoring other people's distress.

Would it be different for a child who looked as though they needed help? I don't know.

One anecdote which made a big impression on me was told by a man in an article in the Saturday Guardian a couple a weeks ago, about a 2 year old who walked out from a nursery and drowned;a man saw her, but dared not stop her in case people thought he was trying to snatch her. What would happen if it was (say) a 11 year old walking along crying? Who would be too afraid to stop? Too many people, I think.

Sad though..... that's society gone crazy isn't it?

I would, no matter what and so would my exdh and so would my dp, brothers etc.

The thing is Wisteria I think that things like this are going on every day - on a more minor level maybe, but still happening.

The number of times I have heard a girl scream late at night and d one nothing - where we lived there were lots of groups of teenagers hanging around and there were always girls screaming. AFAIK there was never anything actually happening and I doubt the police would have done anything if I had called. However, the fact remains I did nothing, which leads me to believe that most (or all) of the other people in the area did nothing either. Sadly, this leads me to conclude that, should my teenage daughter go out and get in trouble it would do her no good at all to scream as no-one would do anything anyway!

This is repeated all over, no-one calls the police about car/house alarms anymore. People look at you funny if you stop to check a young crying child is ok (in my experience this is due to parents leaving children who would not do as they were told) etc.etc. The list is endless.

In truth I have no confidence that an adult would help out if they did suspect someone was in trouble. This is sad but IMO true

(not that I have a teenage daughter )

Sorry x posted Wisteria, I would have said that I would always help too - but I suddenly realised that I couldn't say that I f I didn't always respond to a girl screaming!

I was 7 (1970) my sister came with me and she would have been 5.

We had a flasher too - but I was in my teens then.

never. i went to private school until i was 14 and it was across town.

then i tested into the equivalent of a grammar school and that was about 5 miles away.

if we stay round here, the nearest primary is too far for the girls to walk - in addition there are no pavements, we live off a single carriageway with water on one side.

the council puts on a bus for them to use.

the nearest secondary school for miles, one that serves so much of this region that some students are boarded at it as they live too far out on narrow, windy roads to go there and back in a day, is 12 miles away from us.

again, they'll travel by school bus.