would you let a 9 year old

[memoo]

Take a very well behaved and small dog around the block for a walk on her own? Doesn't involve crossing any roads, and takes about 5 minutes.

• I have a 9 year old and I wouldn't let her do it.

She does walk to school and back, but that's with a friend. Going for a walk on her own (the dog doesn't count) is something that I'm not ready for yet. Perhaps it's a case of PFB and by the time that dc no 3 is 9 I'll be more relaxed.

Yes - I let DS1 walk up to school on his own now, up the hill and across a busy main road (with pedestrian crossing right next to the school) - he started doing that yesterday - one his 8th birthday

I hate the idea that I am bringing up a child in a world where they can't leave my sight for 5 minutes to go for a very short walk with a dog. It means that they are virtually a prisoner.
How do you justify this to a child? I don't see how you can without saying that a nasty stranger might grab them, or a drunken driver might mount the pavement, or the dog might pull them into the road, or ??? I am not prepared to bring them up in that climate of fear and suspicion, I would rather prepare them to deal with risk themselves. Or do you just say 'you can't do it because I say so'?
OP wasn't talking about a proper dog walk, just round the block.

Oh god. This old chestnut. DS won't be 9 until November. I have 'issues' about this and have explained them in the "Would you let a 7 year old ..." thread. They are totally my issues and I totally agree with AbbeyA about preparing them to deal with risk themselves etc etc.

I probably would ... if we had a dog. He goes up the road to see his friend (about 200 metres up) so if we had a dog, yes, I probably would ... if he was 9.

Yes - in daylight

Would be counting every second of the 5 minutes the first time though

Yes. (and I have a DD-9).