When to allow children to have more freedom?

[beigetea]

When do you allow your child to have more freedom in terms of 'playing out'?

Where I live I have noticed a lot of children are out and about on their own.

I also work in a school where children from y3 can walk to and from school alone. My child attends a school where this is allowed from y5.

So when would you allow a child to go and play with friends?

Depends on many factors - how sensible the kid is, what the area is like, how far they're going and what time of day, whether it's a community where they know people, other people around etc, speed of roads

DD is in year 3 and I wouldn't let her out alone

It seemed to be the summer between Yr4 and Yr5 here. They had road safety lessons at school in preparation for being allowed to walk to and from school in Yr5.

For context child is in y5 and still 9.

They have friends who play out which has caused arguments and they want to be allowed to but I don't feel comfortable with them being able to go out alone.

My daughter started walking home from school in year 5 and around that time started going to the park with friends. She is now year 6 and can go around our local area with friends etc

I also have a Year 5 child and I just wouldn't be comfortable with a bunch of 9 year olds playing alone without me seeing them. None of their friends play out alone though because if they meet up, it's at each other's houses.

I have older children and we pretty much kept that rule till they were about 11 ish and even then it was just close by. I think that by secondary I gave them much more freedom.

DS is in Year 3 and plays out, but only because there is no vehicle access in the part he plays out in and I can see (and hear!) him from the living room. Some of the other children are allowed to go onto the other side of the houses where the road is, but DS always comes home when they decide to do that as he knows he’s not allowed on that side.