Parents: At what age did you let your child first start going outside by themselves?

Guppy: Parents: At what age did you let your child first start going outside by themselves?
Not the yard, porch, or farm area. Not across the street to a friends house while you’re watching.
Outside as in..Walk around town. Unsupervised.

You always see seven year olds and such without their parents. That’s..Why? I wouldn’t let my future children go outside by themselves until they were at least thirteen 1/2 or fourteen.
I meant I’ll take them everywhere. They can go outside and to parks but the parents should supervise them. Seven is far too young.

Answers and Views:

Answer by Ethel
Seven is about right, heck my 5 year old is going to walk to school by himself when he feels ready.

Man, 13-14 is way to restrictive! Do you like having obese and poorly muscled children? Kids are meant to roam.

Answer by Dallas is pregnant w/ # 3!
My children are not old enough yet…but I think 10-12 with other friends. Never alone.

Answer by gjd
It probably depends on the town. The town I grew up in–it’s not uncommon to see a 7 year old walking by themselves, or a Kindergartner for that matter.

Answer by desmeran (emeritus)
i haven’t yet, but i will when my daughter gets to middle school next year. so 11.

but that’s largely because we live a few miles from the town center. my 10-year-old already walks the mile to and from school with a friend, and my 8-year-old will walk a couple blocks to a friend’s house.

Answer by Ashlee
When I was younger, I was roaming my neighborhood at 6, but I know times have changed since the 80’s. I think 7 or 8 is a good age as long as the child knows their limits and boundaries of where they can go and where they can’t. I don’t think they should be able to roam too far by themselves. Also, they need to wear a watch and know how to tell time so you can tell them when to be back.

Answer by Lady Morgaine
11 (at 9 they had a 4 block radius of the house to wander)

Answer by Nina Lee
5th grade ish maybe?

Yeah, there’s a 6 year old wonders around our neighborhood, his parents are braver than me.

Answer by Mommy of 5
My kids were walking to school and back at 7 and 8. They were also at that age walking up to the gas station to get gum or whatever.

My daughter of 11 walks around our town all the time. She often takes our dog on long walks, she will walk to my grandma’s house, or do whatever.

When I was 13 I was walking clear across town during the day by myself, and at night with friends. At 13 I had also been babysitting steadily for 2 years. So I also made constant trips to the park, ice cream shop, and other places you would take a child. I couldn’t imagine my parents not having enough faith or trust in me to be smart enough to walk outside.

Answer by daa
My daughter just turned 8, and she doesn’t wander around town alone and unsupervised yet.

Answer by Chris
I started letting them walk around town, go to the mall or whatever around 11-12. I would of let them go earlier, but we live in a big city.

Answer by Rosie Babayyy!
Honestly, I don’t think I will be comfortable with that until 16+. Any younger than that, they can’t have proper judgement for all of the things that can go wrong. If they want to walk around town, I will gladly walk with them. I always see kids that look about 8-10 years old wandering the mall by themselves. I just don’t understand it..how are these parents that trusting of other people? There are sickos out there, and I’m not going to leave my innocent children out there with them by themselves.

Answer by Beth
2weeks. Pregnant.

Answer by Irenie Leigh
I would not allow my child to “roam about town” until they were around 15/16 honestly, At about 12/13 I would start dropping them off at a specific place (mall/movies/etc) and pick them up at a certain time, but they would only be allowed to stay at that one place and I’d know where they were and who they were with at all times. At 9/10 years old I’d allow them to play with friends in our neighborhood unsupervised, as long as they stayed close to home and were trustworthy about it.