At what age would you let kids be home alone and get to school two hours late ?

[Anonymous]

Depending on the kid, maybe I’d worry about them locking up, making sure things were turned off that need to be turned off, etc. The walking part seems totally fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child is in third grade. Parents are enraged about the two hour delay. These kids are 8-9 years old. Some of these people live 1-2 blocks away from school. There is no reason why a 9 year old can’t walk a block to school alone and parent can go to work.

Not talking about parents of younger kids.

At what age would you let your kid go to the bus stop or walk to school by themselves?

I remember walking home from school alone in kindergarten. I lived a block away. This was in the eighties.

I remember thinking I missed my bus as a kid and having to walk to school by myself. I was in elementary. I got lost. Then I had to take the way the bus goes which was a longer route down a one way divided street. People were offering me rides. Finally the bus came, it must’ve been a two hour delay or something and I got on the bus the rest of the way.

Op here. The family I am thinking of lives one block from the school. I want to say they live 6-7 houses on the SAME street of the school. I think a 9 year old should be able to walk to school.

Allowing (much less expecting) a third grader to walk themselves to school with no parental supervision is definitely well outside the norm for this area (and would probably prompt some to call cps.)

This is why failure to launch kids exist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child is in third grade. Parents are enraged about the two hour delay. These kids are 8-9 years old. Some of these people live 1-2 blocks away from school. There is no reason why a 9 year old can’t walk a block to school alone and parent can go to work.

Not talking about parents of younger kids.

At what age would you let your kid go to the bus stop or walk to school by themselves?

I remember walking home from school alone in kindergarten. I lived a block away. This was in the eighties.

I remember thinking I missed my bus as a kid and having to walk to school by myself. I was in elementary. I got lost. Then I had to take the way the bus goes which was a longer route down a one way divided street. People were offering me rides. Finally the bus came, it must’ve been a two hour delay or something and I got on the bus the rest of the way.

Op here. The family I am thinking of lives one block from the school. I want to say they live 6-7 houses on the SAME street of the school. I think a 9 year old should be able to walk to school.

Allowing (much less expecting) a third grader to walk themselves to school with no parental supervision is definitely well outside the norm for this area (and would probably prompt some to call cps.)

Insane. I was 5 years old in kindergarten and walked a mile to school with my 7 year old brother.

And elsewhere in the world 5-7 year olds are still working in sweatshops….doesn’t make it something you should strive to emulate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child is in third grade. Parents are enraged about the two hour delay. These kids are 8-9 years old. Some of these people live 1-2 blocks away from school. There is no reason why a 9 year old can’t walk a block to school alone and parent can go to work.

Not talking about parents of younger kids.

At what age would you let your kid go to the bus stop or walk to school by themselves?

I remember walking home from school alone in kindergarten. I lived a block away. This was in the eighties.

I remember thinking I missed my bus as a kid and having to walk to school by myself. I was in elementary. I got lost. Then I had to take the way the bus goes which was a longer route down a one way divided street. People were offering me rides. Finally the bus came, it must’ve been a two hour delay or something and I got on the bus the rest of the way.

Op here. The family I am thinking of lives one block from the school. I want to say they live 6-7 houses on the SAME street of the school. I think a 9 year old should be able to walk to school.

Allowing (much less expecting) a third grader to walk themselves to school with no parental supervision is definitely well outside the norm for this area (and would probably prompt some to call cps.)

Insane. I was 5 years old in kindergarten and walked a mile to school with my 7 year old brother.

This is now illegal in many states

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All kids are different. My older child was fine with being left home alone for 30-60 minutes at 9 years old, while my younger now 10 year old gets panicky at the idea of being left home alone even for a few minutes.

There’s no way I would have left either to get themselves to school alone at that age.

You really need to rethink this whole parenting thing. Our job as parents is to produce kind SELF SUFFICIENT adults that contribute to society. We have to give them autonomy in bits along the way. Clearly if you cannot trust an 8 year old to walk half a block there is a problem. If the problem is you - air tag the kid to make sure they got there

I wouldn't allow a young child to do that and its not a me issue. Horrific things happen in our society, horrific things have happened in our family. Stay blessed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child is in third grade. Parents are enraged about the two hour delay. These kids are 8-9 years old. Some of these people live 1-2 blocks away from school. There is no reason why a 9 year old can’t walk a block to school alone and parent can go to work.

Not talking about parents of younger kids.

At what age would you let your kid go to the bus stop or walk to school by themselves?

I remember walking home from school alone in kindergarten. I lived a block away. This was in the eighties.

I remember thinking I missed my bus as a kid and having to walk to school by myself. I was in elementary. I got lost. Then I had to take the way the bus goes which was a longer route down a one way divided street. People were offering me rides. Finally the bus came, it must’ve been a two hour delay or something and I got on the bus the rest of the way.

Op here. The family I am thinking of lives one block from the school. I want to say they live 6-7 houses on the SAME street of the school. I think a 9 year old should be able to walk to school.

Allowing (much less expecting) a third grader to walk themselves to school with no parental supervision is definitely well outside the norm for this area (and would probably prompt some to call cps.)

This is why failure to launch kids exist.

Op here. I was just thinking these kids are so helpless these days.

[Anonymous]

7/8/9 depending on the kid. Walking to or from the bus stop and home is one thing but a PP made a good point about potentially losing track of time at home alone.

Especially if it’s just a block down the street.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child is in third grade. Parents are enraged about the two hour delay. These kids are 8-9 years old. Some of these people live 1-2 blocks away from school. There is no reason why a 9 year old can’t walk a block to school alone and parent can go to work.

Not talking about parents of younger kids.

At what age would you let your kid go to the bus stop or walk to school by themselves?

I remember walking home from school alone in kindergarten. I lived a block away. This was in the eighties.

Walking to school at 8-9? Fine. Being left alone for two hours? Not even sure that's legal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Walking home from school a block away is completely different. 8-9 is way too young to be home alone for hours in the morning and getting themselves to school. They may lose track of time, they may miss the bus, the bus may be delayed, they don’t have phones and I’m not giving my 8 yr old a phone to take the place of adult supervision

Or try to cook themselves breakfast and set the house on fire

[Anonymous]

Not til middle school

[Anonymous]

I didn’t leave my kids alone for 2 hours until they were aged 9-10, and for us that was about right.

I’d only allow this if kid had a phone or watch with tracking & could communicate with me, and we had practiced locking up etc beforehand.

[Anonymous]

We just started this year on delay days. DS is 6th grade. I wake him up and make sure he’s out of bed and showered before I leave. Then I set 4 million alarms on his iPad (10:10, pack lunch. 10:15, pack backpack. 10:20, crate the dog. 10:25, shoes and jacket. 10:30, lock up and walk to bus stop)

We’ve done it 3 times this year and I still get stressed over it.

[Anonymous]

At age 8-9 my kids were quite capable to walk themselves to and from school. Even on a delay where I had to leave before they did. We have an Alexa like most people do. I would patch in at certain times and let them know they had to get their teeth brushed. Or they had X minutes before they had to leave. 100 years ago these kids would have been out planting the crops and killing their own dinner. They are capable of way more than parents think they are. Unclench people.

[Anonymous]

Never. Mainly because DH always had work flexibility, and I also became SAHM once I had 2 kids.

[Anonymous]

I think 3rd grade (assuming they are eight years old, or a young 9) is definitely too young for this. I’m surprised by the responses as I’m usually among the most relaxed (both here and definitely IRL).

I left my kids for up to an hour max, if I was very close by and in touch. I’d also be fine with them walking 1-2 blocks to school or the bus. But 2 hours + getting off to school while I am at work? No. At least a year too young for that, if not two years. It may not even be legal to do so just yet (not entirely sure).