We had our 6yo walking the two and a half blocks to school by herself. But she wasn’t willing to talk to concerned strangers, and it turns out that this is a de facto legal requirement for small people walking alone in a way it is not for adults walking alone—they couldn’t figure out where she was going or if she was okay so they called the cops. Now we have to accompany her when none of us like this at all. It doesn’t seem like a general factor of independence though… she won’t get ready for bed alone.
I’m sorry that happened! That sounds stressful for everyone!
I read Lily and Anna your comment, and asked if anything similar had happened to them:
Anna: No one has ever actually asked me, but I think it might happen in the future.
Lily: I remember two times when someone asked me. The first time I was coming home from a friend’s house and I got confused about directions and I was looking around, and someone asked if I needed help. Another time I was over by the park and an old lady asked if I was okay. I was just walking near the park, not doing anything weird, and they were just curious. There was also one other time when I was putting something in the mailbox in the evening [JK: just a few houses down from us] and someone asked me what I was doing and wanted to watch to make sure I went into a house.
Our kids have pretty different responses to adults asking them questions, and it does sound like that’s important here.
(Before they started going out alone we also did some practice on what they would say if an adult asked them what they were doing. Talking to Julia, it sounds like she still practices these occasionally with Lily, especially when Lily is nervous about whether an adult will stop her.)
It’s probably not helping that ours looks a fair bit younger than she is (or so I’m told, she looks six to me in the sense that she is larger than she was when she was five, but she’s the oldest and the smallest kid in her little school). I sometimes have to point at her and make a facial expression for the benefit of supervising neighbors when I’m walking her, especially if she runs ahead.
Sort of, but it depends where you live. Younger kids walking to school is unusual at this point, but it used to be super prevalent, and where we live there are still crossing guards. There are cases where I’m worried that the local authorities (the Department of Children and Families, DCF) would see things differently and we could get in trouble, but this isn’t really one of them?
We had our 6yo walking the two and a half blocks to school by herself. But she wasn’t willing to talk to concerned strangers, and it turns out that this is a de facto legal requirement for small people walking alone in a way it is not for adults walking alone—they couldn’t figure out where she was going or if she was okay so they called the cops. Now we have to accompany her when none of us like this at all. It doesn’t seem like a general factor of independence though… she won’t get ready for bed alone.
I’m sorry that happened! That sounds stressful for everyone!
I read Lily and Anna your comment, and asked if anything similar had happened to them:
Anna: No one has ever actually asked me, but I think it might happen in the future.
Lily: I remember two times when someone asked me. The first time I was coming home from a friend’s house and I got confused about directions and I was looking around, and someone asked if I needed help. Another time I was over by the park and an old lady asked if I was okay. I was just walking near the park, not doing anything weird, and they were just curious. There was also one other time when I was putting something in the mailbox in the evening [JK: just a few houses down from us] and someone asked me what I was doing and wanted to watch to make sure I went into a house.
Our kids have pretty different responses to adults asking them questions, and it does sound like that’s important here.
(Before they started going out alone we also did some practice on what they would say if an adult asked them what they were doing. Talking to Julia, it sounds like she still practices these occasionally with Lily, especially when Lily is nervous about whether an adult will stop her.)
It’s probably not helping that ours looks a fair bit younger than she is (or so I’m told, she looks six to me in the sense that she is larger than she was when she was five, but she’s the oldest and the smallest kid in her little school). I sometimes have to point at her and make a facial expression for the benefit of supervising neighbors when I’m walking her, especially if she runs ahead.
This is probably very location sensitive, are you both in the UK?
Nope, Bay Area.
We’re both in the US, though different cities (I’m in Boston)
Oh, in the US this is dangerous, isn’t it? (I mean, legally)
Sort of, but it depends where you live. Younger kids walking to school is unusual at this point, but it used to be super prevalent, and where we live there are still crossing guards. There are cases where I’m worried that the local authorities (the Department of Children and Families, DCF) would see things differently and we could get in trouble, but this isn’t really one of them?