At what age did you walk to school alone?

[TravelingGal]

Vesper''s thread on ATW had me thinking...

When you were a kid, at what age did you walk to school alone? We walked to school alone in Kindergarten (I was 4 years old for the first few months of Kinder). I know my parents weren''t crazy because I distinctly remember one day going the long way to school and a boy calling my name. He ran to catch up with me to walk to school. Many, many kindergartners walked to school themselves.

Now I think all those parents (including my own) were on drugs! A four year old walking alone to school? Yet we all did it and we all got there on time.

At what age do kids walk to school alone now? Vesper''s thread said the girl was 7. I know for SURE by 7, when I was a kid, EVERYONE walked home from school alone!

 

[soocool]

In the 1960s, I was 6 and my sister was 8 and we walked to and from school together (about 5 blocks). I remember that later on (don''t remember when) my mom began to walk us to and from school. It seems there was a girl in a neighboring town who was abducted on her way to school (she normally walked with someone else to school), sexually attacked, and released to her mom later that same day.

 

[steph72276]

I never did....we lived too far away from school to do that. Now our neighborhood is right next door to the elementary school. I see sooo many little kids walking alone and it makes me wonder about the parents. Granted there are crossing guards, policeman, and a ton of other parents walking/riding bikes with the children, but I will not let my child walk to school by himself while in elementary school. We live in a very safe neighborhood, but you just never know who is lurking and watching your children and if anything ever happened, I would never forgive myself.

 

[E B]

Never. I always went to schools miles from my house. I don't think I would have been allowed to had we lived closer, though.

Date: 10/26/2009 2:13:45 PM
Author: steph72276
I never did....we lived too far away from school to do that. Now our neighborhood is right next door to the elementary school. I see sooo many little kids walking alone and it makes me wonder about the parents. Granted there are crossing guards, policeman, and a ton of other parents walking/riding bikes with the children, but I will not let my child walk to school by himself while in elementary school. We live in a very safe neighborhood, but you just never know who is lurking and watching your children and if anything ever happened, I would never forgive myself.

I agree. Even middle school might be too young, depending on how far the school is from our home.

 

[dragonfly411]

I walked to school all through Middle school, and sometimes in Elementary school. I distinctly remember in elementary school, being allowed to rolloerblade the three miles to my friend''s house to play. She lived in a large sprawling community of neighborhoods, with a central town center, and we went all over this place by ourselves.

 

[TooPatient]

Starting in middle school. 6th grade.

About 3/4 of a mile. Sometimes to my grandparents'' house. Sometimes home. Sometimes other people waiting when I got there. Other times all alone.

Dropped off in the morning. Walked home alone after. (not with friends, just me)

High school (9th grade -- age 13) I walked to and from alone.

 

[somethingshiny]

I started school in 85, I think??

We lived in and around Dallas, Tx. When I was in Kindergarten and my brother was in 2nd grade we walked to school together. It was maybe 6 blocks from our house. Then we moved far away and took the bus for a year. When I was in 2nd grade and beyond I walked by myself often(about 6-8 blocks). Bro and I attended the same school but I wanted to be there early and he didn''t. When I was in 6th - 8th grade, I walked nearly a mile and a half by myself. I remember being scared because lots of kids got jumped for gang initiations during that time. My friend''s brother got shot during a drive by and several of my brother''s friends got jumped by high schoolers. They got beat badly and their heads shaved. Thankfully, my brother and I never had a problem.

My mom didn''t have a car so she couldn''t drive us and we had younger siblings so she couldn''t walk us.

If we were even the tiniest bit late getting home, we got grounded. My mom was scared to death that something would happen to us.

 

[princesss]

I walked to school from about age 7 or 8. We could see the soccer fields of the school from our house, so it was about as safe as letting me walk to my friend''s house down the street. In 4th grade, I changed schools and rode my bike to and from school (less than a mile) by myself. In 6th grade I rode my bike to my middle school, which was about 2 miles (yeah, I Mapquested it). I remember it felt so grown up.

 

[packrat]

We lived in the country, so we rode the bus. We live not quite 2 blocks from London''s school and we either walk her there or drive her if the weather is bad.

It''s just not the same world today that it was back then. We have a friend who has worked for the police and now Sheriff''s department for over 6 years, and his wife is a dispatcher. When my brother was back on leave last Spring they came over for his party and we talked about the things that go on and the people in town that nobody knows about. We hadn''t planned on letting London walk by herself to begin with, and we most certainly wouldn''t have after hearing their stories.

Just because we''re in a small Midwestern town doesn''t mean things can''t/won''t happen, and I know my dad would be the first person to roll his eyes and be all dramatic and "Oh GAWWWWD Missi Pleeeeease she''s FIIIINE" but I won''t take any chances with my kids. When she''s older, Trapper will be in school and I won''t be letting her walk him alone, so she''s stuck w/me. The Middle school/Junior High is another 4 blocks away..so yeah, she''s stuck w/me until she can drive!

 

[Erin]

First grade. Six years old. 1981.

 

[Lauren8211]

I remember walking home from school occassionally in 1st grade. Walked on a daily basis in 2nd grade. After that I moved and was too far to walk.

I started kindergarten in 1987, when I was 4 almost 5.

 

[MonkeyPie]

I was a mile away from every school I went to, but my mom was such a control freak and paranoid that I would be run over or kidnapped, that I never walked. Ever.

I am so not doing that crap to my kids. Jeez. Let them learn some independence.

 

[rainwood]

I started walking to school by myself in 3rd grade. It was about a mile. No one thought twice about it in those days (the early 60''s). The only odd thing that happened was an earthquake - a pretty big one - but I wasn''t scared because I didn''t even know what it was. I just thought it was weird that the ground was shaking and a vase fell through someone''s broken picture window into their yard. Then I just started walking again. It taught me a lot about how fear is contagious. I didn''t get scared until I got to school and everyone was talking about it.

 

[purrfectpear]

8 or 9, and it was a bit over a mile. By 12 I was being paid as an evening babysitter. Things were a little different in the 50''s/60''s.

I let my son walk to school 5 blocks to the crossing guard when he was in 3rd grade, but several of the little boys walked together.

 

[vespergirl]

I only walked to school once, with my older brother, when my mom got unexpectedly very ill one morning. He was 10, and I was 5 - he was in 5th grade, and I was in kindergarten. We lived 3 short blocks from our elementary school.

My parents were very overprotective though, so that only happened that once in an extenuating circumstance. We were also not allowed to go to sleepovers or sleepaway camp. My parents are immigrants from a culture where children didn''t sleep at each other''s homes - apparently that''s more of an American tradition. They always told us that if there was a fire, the parents would save their own children, but not the rest (possibly true). When we were older, they also admitted that they were afraid of us being molested - at either a sleepover or camp - from stories that I''ve heard, that''s not that uncommon.

 

[Clio]

I began walking to school alone at age 8, which is when I started at the school on the edge of my neighborhood. Generally, a bunch of us walked together.

We recently got a message from our kids'' elementary school principal urging parents to wait with them at the bus stop until the bus comes. This is understandable for the littler ones, but a 4th or 5th grader really doesn''t need parents waiting, especially at a stop with several other kids.

 

[lili]

TGal--
Wow, you were really young then.
We walked to school ourselves too...but I started school at the tail end of 1st grade, so was much older than you.
I never walk alone though since my siblings (older and younger) went to the same school.
Sometimes the older ones hang out w/ their friends though, so I end up walking the younger ones back home.

 

[AmberWaves]

Man, I was sheltered as a kid! I wasn''t allowed to walk to school until high school, and usually that was walking three blocks to a friend''s house, THEN walking together. It''s funny, because I was baby-sitting for five families at 12 years old, newborns and everything- but I wasn''t allowed to walk to school? We''d kind of walk home, I''d walk to the same friend''s house, or another friend would drive us to her house. For some reason, the walk to school was more concerning than the walk home? Huh. This was mid-nineties.

 

[drk]

I'm not sure up to Grade 1 (lived in California at the time, and I have no idea how far my school was from our house). Then we moved back to Canada when I was 6, and my first school was about 5 blocks straight down the hill from where I lived. I'm pretty sure I started walking there then. Can't remember if I had my little brother with me or not.

From Grade 6 on (so age 9 for me, mid 1980s), I was in a "gifted" program at a school across the city. I had to take public transit, and transfer buses at the university to get there. That year, there was 1-2 abductions by some guy in a white car, and I was still sent to school on the bus. I'd live in fear if I didn't happen to end up on the same bus as other kids at my school, and would RUN from the bus stop the few blocks to my school. It could be pouring with rain (torrential), and I wouldn't even be given a ride to the bus stop 6-7 blocks from my house in the mornings. I distinctly remember accepting a ride from a lady (against my mother's rules, obviously) during one absolutely torrential downpour at some point during my school years, but I think I was older then. I took public transit half-way across the city for the rest of my middle and high school days. Never had a problem.

I think if I end up living within reasonable walking distance to our future kids' public school, I'll let them walk. It was very good for my independence, and I only ever felt unsafe the one time.

I was also babysitting in the evenings (sometimes till quite late) from age 12-13 on. Babysat 6 month old twins and their 5 year old sister from age 13 on. Mom was always on the other end of the phone if I had any problems. Seems weird that 13 year olds get treated like little kids so often these days (from what I see in the hospital).

 

[VRBeauty]

Kindergarten -- age 4 (this was in Europe and we went to kindergarten for two years). My brother started walking with me a year or two later.

I didn''t stop until I got to high school (maybe 3/4 mile from home) and realized that I could bum a ride off my dad when he went to work. I still had to walk home though!

Yup, it was a while ago.

 

[Kaleigh]

Didn''t it was too far, and we didn''t have busing till I was in middle school.

TGal, wow that''s just incredible to me that you walked to school at the age of 4!!!!

 

[TooPatient]

Did anyone see Changling?

Very good movie. (and I don''t say that often)

The subject is disturbing (the story is about a child who is left alone and goes missing) but it is well done and nothing is actually shown. They get the message across without having to show the actual event.

Directed by Clint Eastwood. With Angela Jolie.

This is based on a real event and was well researched.


I highly recommend it. (NOT FOR KIDS!!!! -- maybe older, but watch it without them first and then decide)

 

[kittybean]

My elementary school was across the street from my house, so I walked there alone beginning in first grade. My nanny would stand at the front door and watch me walk into the building, so I was supervised the whole time.

 

[fieryred33143]

6/7? I know it was around the time my brothers were born.

My public school was a NY block away from my home. It was a different time though. I used to walk to school and if I stopped to look at something, someone would say "Fiery, keep walking to school or I''m going to call your dad." And believe me...when my dad got home from work at 6pm he knew that I stopped to look at something.

 

[Skippy123]

Well the rule (per the school district) was if you live less than a mile from mid school then you could walk to school. I walked to school all of mid school which was almost exactly a mile. My sister and I would walk together and when I went to high school she would walk alone to mid school.

I read some statistic somewhere that kids are safer now then they were when we were kids.


eta: I just remembered when I was in Brownies in Elementry school the Brownie leader lived 3 blocks from school (maybe 1/2 mile) and the kids would walk to her house. I wonder if the Brownie leader would be allowed to do that today??

 

[TravelingGal]

Date: 10/26/2009 3:59:45 PM
Author: Kaleigh
Didn''t it was too far, and we didn''t have busing till I was in middle school.

TGal, wow that''s just incredible to me that you walked to school at the age of 4!!!!

Yeah, I know! But as I said, I wasn''t the only one. My kindergarten was a block away if I cut through the back gate of the school (which is how I normally walked). The long way was about 3 long blocks.

I walked to school 1st grade too, which was much farther (I moved to a different town). 2nd grade was private school so we drove. Back to the original town for 3rd grade and I walked to school ever since. We never got lifts to school...I have no child recollection of such a thing with the exception of 2nd grade. And even then, I vividly remember my mom being late to pick me up...about 1.5 hours late. I was sitting on the school benches by myself. All the teachers had left. Can you imagine such a thing now?

 

[softly softly]

Tgal I''ll raise my hand and join in the ''walked to school without a parent at age 4 camp''. I vividly remember when I started school at 4 1/2 walking to and from school (which was a short distance away) with my brother who would have been 6 at the time. I think I''m probably a similar age to Tgal, so yes it was a different time, and also, in my parents defence it was a very small town.

As for when my kids will be walking on their own, I really don''t know. Currently we live directly across the road from the school my son will be starting next year, but we are in the process of moving to a place that is definitely not within walking distance. Had we stayed at our current address I think I would have been comfortable letting my son walk the 10 metres to the school crossing unaccompanied, but this is probably because I would be able to watch him from our front door.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

I was in kindergarten, however, I walked to the bus stop, not to school. After school, I was home by myself. Yep, at age 5 I was home by myself from after school for a few hours until my parents got home.

I use to watch scooby doo and eat sugar.

ETA - we live RIGHT next to the school and my kids (7 & 9) walk themselves a few times per week. I can stand next to our fence and watch them go down the block, go across the crosswalk and right up to the front of the school. If they weren't visable, I wouldn't let them. After school, I'm waiting outside and we walk home together.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Date: 10/26/2009 4:09:27 PM
Author: Skippy123
I read some statistic somewhere that kids are safer now then they were when we were kids.


eta: I just remembered when I was in Brownies in Elementry school the Brownie leader lived 3 blocks from school (maybe 1/2 mile) and the kids would walk to her house. I wonder if the Brownie leader would be allowed to do that today??

I don''t think kids are in any more danger, it''s just that there is more media attention re: missing kids. We have more forms of communication and between the news and the internet, we hear about every little incident.

I''m still paranoid, though, and won''t let my younger son walk anywhere by himself. My older is allowed to walk about four blocks down the road to his friend''s house.

 

[Allison D.]

It was either at 5 or 6, and I think it was 5 (kindergarten). We lived about 2-3 blocks from the school.

But, it was a different world then. If I was a parent today, I wouldn''t allow the same thing myself.....mostly because I''d be a total wreck.