What age?

[SpinningFloppa]

I get the bus with my children to school in the mornings, this bus is usually very packed, no seats at all downstairs, there is upstairs but I don’t like going upstairs as I get dizzy and it’s not a long enough journey for me to bother the bus is usually moving as well when you go up , however my children want to go up and standing downstairs means they can often get in the way when there is nowhere to sit, so they prefer to go up, oldest is 10 sensible and in year 6 so secondary next year, what age would you allow a younger child to go up with him just the two of them whilst you stand downstairs?

Assuming they liked each other and weren’t likely to fall out, potentially as young as 4?

The key issue here is how old is the youngest and is your 10 year old capable of looking after them?

I wanted to get general opinions oldest is very sensible (both are not the type to be silly) and certainly capable of watching a younger sibling they will sit together and I’m standing by the stairs at the bottom.

General opinions aren't really helpful OP because they're not relevant to your kids. Why not just try it and see how it goes?

I wanted general opinions without posting the age as I had a run in with someone on the bus this morning who approached me to have a go at me so I didn’t want the ages swaying the answers.

If you are sat/stood downstairs whilst you're 2 children are upstairs on the bus, I don't see what the problem is unless they are misbehaving.

Would you leave your 10 year old and younger one in the living room together whilst you cooked dinner in the kitchen or was upstairs making the beds in the bedrooms? It's kind of the same thing.

I'd possibly be apprehensive if you were letting them get the bus alone and your youngest was quite small, but you are on the bus with them and they can go to you if anything is wrong, then I don't see a problem

Do they definitely know where to get off as they may not hear you calling them? Is the youngest of an age where they would sit quietly without kicking the seat in front etc?

Yes of course we get the same bus to school every day and have been for years. No she doesn’t kick peoples seats 😬 if they didn’t come down I would call them anyway or wait I wouldn’t get off the bus? But yes they do know the stop we get the bus every day.

To add my oldest is able to travel to school alone he is year 6 so of course he knows what stop? It’s 4 stops away. He’s been doing it for 6 years.

6 maybe?

It depends on the child. I would trust my 9 year old alone but not with his 6 year old brother because they'd squabble and bother other people. I'd trust my 6 year old alone too.

6 year old alone? Yeah they don’t argue, I wouldn’t let her go up alone but I thought it was fine as she was with her brother.

When mine were 5&7 we did a long distance train journey (Cologne to Brussels) and their seats turned out to be quite far from mine (consecutive numbers, but a massive luggage area in between and I was facing the opposite way to them). They were fine doing that, so I cant see why a 10yo and a 6+yo, maybe even 5, couldn't manage sitting away from a parent for 10mins on their regular bus service

(Indeed my children took the School bus from 4yo... bit different as it was children only though)

I would let my very sensible 8 and 7 year olds go up together.