At what age should I let my child . . .

[Anonymous]

Play in the neighborhood unattended? I feel like I should always have him in my sight, but other moms in the neighborhood let their kids run around without being carefully watched. Should he be monitored at all times? I feel like my primary job as a mom is to make sure he is safe, and I am losing that control with him running around with the neighborhood kids. He is 7 years old.

[Anonymous]

If he's in a group of kids and stays on the block, and it's a safe/low traffic block and you discuss clear safety rules, I think it's ok.

We have a social block and kids at that age were always going back and forth. We had a rule that if they went to someone's house they had to call me and let me know, and the parents usually called each other to say "the girls are here now" too. But these are families we know really well.

[Anonymous]

In my close in Bethesda neighborhood (so a bit more urban than some)-- I think the norm is more like 9-10 for that kind of independence. Some 8 yr olds walk their dogs alone, 8-10 yr olds walk to the bus stop alone. Younger than that are almost always supervised.

[Anonymous]

......ask me anything! (sorry, I could not resist)

[Anonymous]

I was ok with my kids playing in the neighborhood alone at 7. Some kids in our neighborhood did at 4 or 5.

[Anonymous]

I think my kids were around 8 when I let them go out without me, but they had to be in someone's yard (not playing in the street). We live in a safe suburban neighborhood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Play in the neighborhood unattended? I feel like I should always have him in my sight, but other moms in the neighborhood let their kids run around without being carefully watched. Should he be monitored at all times? I feel like my primary job as a mom is to make sure he is safe, and I am losing that control with him running around with the neighborhood kids. He is 7 years old.

I would state this slightly differently: my primary job as a mom is to try to make sure the risks my kids take are (1) at a level they are likely to handle successfully and (2) unlikely to have a lethal effect if I'm wrong about 1. So I wouldn't let a 4-year-old run around the neighborhood unsupervised at all, I would make sure a 7-year-old had a few key rules and was likely to obey them (checking in, staying within a general area, letting me know if he's going into someone's house), and I would give a 9 year old a higher level of freedom. My goal is to let my kids learn to manage risks and their own behavior, not to deep them as safe as possible at all moments.