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.

Four in 1972 in a small town/large village. Felt like a long way at that time but probably wasn't. Only little estate roads to cross!

I would have been equivalent of Y5, so about 9 I think, was about 1982. When I started middle school I was allowed to walk part of the way to school on my own. Mum would take me half way as she took my brother to the first school, then I walked the rest - no big roads or anything though and about 5 minutes walk. Following year I was allowesd to walk all th way so long as with my best friend who lived on the same road as me - 10 minute walk or so, again no big roads.

I can't remember. It never really seemed important enough an event to want to be able to recall it.

I'm always amazed at these threads - how can you remember when you first did these things?

I remember them by "as it before or after we moved house" (ie before P4), before or after I went to Secondary School, before or after we went to NZ (S2), before or after I came back from NZ (S4) etc, ie key evenets that I can date.

I was five or six. All the way across town, several roads to cross, only one had a lollipop man.

At six I also had to take the girl next door who was five. I remember her Mum telling me off because I had let her get too far behind. I was also bullied by a pair of twins who used to lie in wait for me on the way home.

My Mum, on the other hand, remembers distinctly that she used to walk me to school every day and I never went on my own...

Always walked to primary school by myself so I know I was 5.

Secondary school I went 8 miles on the bus then walked about half a mile from age 11.

Nothing at all unusual in those days.

DH went 20 miles on train from age 11 - his younger brother joined him when he was 8.

I don't think the whole notion of people being afraid to help out kids in case they get accused of something is very persuasive.

Like the guy in the Guardian story: he'd rather let a toddler get into danger than run the risk of some random stranger saying he was snatching her? big man, huh? All he'd have to do would be to hand the kid over to the accuser, or offer to call the police in the hypothetical accuser's presence.

Crappy attitudes like his must be one of the reasons we are reluctant to let our kids walk to school: there are too many people around who are too self-absorbed and pathetic to take responsibility for children in the public realm.

Walked to school from when I was 5, in the mid 70s

But agree with Oldengoldie and rantinghousewife that the risks may not be higher but the awareness may be (very good posts)

My girls are HE'd but if they went to school I think I would let mine walk round to school on their own. However, we live in a small village and the children all play together so no doubt they would walk to school together. And no busy roads between our house and the village school.

5, in the 1970s, in a busy town.

A girl in my class also walked home on her own - but she died one Dec when she ran out of school at the end of the day and across the road, seeing the Xmas lights and decs in her house window.

I wouldn't let my DD walk to school on her own at 5 yo - and we live in a quiet village, with the school much nearer!

And anyway, walking to and from school/nursery is a lovely time - to share what you're going to do in the day, and what you have done

Hobnob that is so sad.

I will always remember reading in the local paper about a girl of 9 who was killed crossing a road - I even remember her name, she was the same age as me - whenever I drive along that road I think of her and how the speed limit was reduced after she died.

From reception class - so just five - but no roads to cross and small village.

Stranger danger and traffic aside however, I probably needed saving from my self. After having a lady from RNIB coming to talk to the class about blindness one day, I decided to walk home with my eyes shut to see what it felt like. No surprise I walked into a wall, cutting my head open. I think had I not got such a completely rational explanation (in my mind), I suspect parents would have got a right grilling at A & E.

about 7 i think, when i was considered old enough to cross the busy road (would cross half way then wait in the middle for the other side to clear ). alone until i picked up a friend who lived closer to school, about a 15-20 minute walk.

we live less than 5 minutes from school but the pavements are heavily parked and there are lots of little roads to cross and people drive like idiots around here, so can't think when i'd be happy for dd1 to walk alone.

lol @stripey dp once decided to walk along a pier with a jumper over his head, was only rescued by a quick thinking stranger as his foot dangled over the end

Mother is here and she says I started walking alone to school at eleven, when I started secondary.
She used to walk at 6 but she lived in a village and only had to cut across a field to get to school!