How much freedom do your 10/11 year old girls have?

[MummySharkDoodoododoo]

My girls are 10 and 11 years old. Year 5 and 6. Currently they are still very much always with an adult, they are dropped to and from school and clubs etc.

I often see kids from their class at the park without an adult, or just wandering round the streets with a friend. Most of them walk to and from school alone.

Mine are tiny for their age, smallest in their years so also look young.
I'm terrified of letting them out on their own. I trust them, but I do not trust the amount of weirdos in the world (lots of experience of this myself as a teen).

But don't want them to suffer because of me. Or be the only ones.

I have left them home alone (together) while I nip to the shop or drop a sibling off etc, but that feels safer being in the house. Where as my partner doesn't like them being left at all at home.

Would like to hear how much freedom your girls of similar age have.

Mine are 11 and start secondary in September.
They've now started walking or getting bus home alone 2 days a week and waiting home alone for me to get in from work. This week we're practicing going to the high St on their own

My Y5 DD is still with an adult most of the time although I let her walk part of the way to school once we've crossed the main road and I let her play outside in our cul de sac. Quite a few of her friends do walk to school alone but I have a younger child and we live over a mile away so it's not very practical for me. It's probably 50:50 in her year, but we live in quite a safe residential area (safe in terms of traffic and crime rates).

Mine are 9 and 10 ( year 4 and year 5). They have about an hour together after school twice a week where they can go to the park or library near their school ( we live too far from school for them to walk home together) to wait for me to finish work. They can go out to local park without me if they want to and they spend up to an hour home without an adult ( either together or separately). We're trying to build up their independence gradually so they'll be ready to be more independent when they go to secondary school.

I think this sort of thing varies depending on the area you live in. We used to live on the sort of estate where everyone knows everyone and so the children were all safe to have plenty of independence as everyone looked out for each other. Where we are now it is much more unusual to see children out on their own and so it feels a bit more unsafe to let them out.

my DD is in P5 (Y4 in England) she can stay at home alone for upto an hour, she gets the school bus but most of her year group walk home alone or with each other, when she is at park with her friend her gran and I drink coffee they have to stay in park but can go out of sight down by the stream or into the woodland area
She is allowed to cook at home unsupervised but not when I'm actually not there
She is dropped off at swimming lessons she gets changed puts clothes in locker has lesson, quick shower and dresses herself I pick her up from entrance or she walks to Costa or similar to meet me, if I go to supermarket she knows I may not finish in the 40 minutes so she just waits for me
children don't suddenly mature in the 6 weeks holiday between primary and secondary I think they should be getting more and more independence in the two years previous

Thank you. I think I need to start letting them do more. But really struggle getting over the idea of them being abducted or raped or something

When I was at secondary school I had so many experiences like this. I was followed home, twice. Flashed at on the tube, one man sat next to me and mastibated next to me when I was about 13 again on the tube, I was then groomed at 14 and raped/sexually abused by my "boyfriend" who was an older man.

I can't get these things out of my head when thinking of my girls on their own without an adult.

Depends where you live. Here the school encourages Y6 children to walk to school, in preparation for secondary.

Ds2 is Y5 and he and his friend(neighbour) have just started to walk to school 1 day a week. They are very very excited by this. But they are nearly 11, huge strapping boys, very confident personalities.

Poor you. I've just seen your post about being flashed and groomed!

My 11yo doesn't go anywhere on her own. We're only 15 mins walk from the town centre but she hasn't done that yet. She is happy to stay at home on her own but gets twitchy after about an hour. She suffers from severe anxiety though so it's a bit trickier with her. Luckily the secondary school she's headed to is down the road from the primary she and dd2 go to so she's asked if I can still take her and she'll walk the last bit herself. I'm sure once she meets friends that live nearby she'll start wanting to walk on her own but there's no rush.

Mine would go to and from school on their own - encouraged by the school in preparation for secondary school. Go into Central London on their own - 15 min tube plus walk - to an agreed child’s activity weekly. Simple local bus journeys in the area , maybe with friends the same age - a few stops.

Definitely park on their own -only five mins away. And local shops - also five mins.

I sympathise as my Y5 DD is also tiny! I've left her at home for 30 mins max to drop her brother somewhere but haven't let her out by herself much yet. She wants to start walking to school by herself in Y6 which will be fine as it's only 10 mins away.

I was a little shocked to see a group of 6 girls in her year down our local beach by themselves with surfboards. No way I'd let her do that yet!!

It's so dependent on where you live. I'm fairly rural, my 10 year old in year 5 calls on friends, plays around and about at the park and in the woods and cycles to the next village to go to the shops, nothing exciting just she offers if we've run out of eggs or milk or something.