DC families—what age for the playground unsupervised?

[Anonymous]

I live in Mt P and just started letting my 10 and 7 yr olds go to Bancroft playground together.

[Anonymous]

We live in Upper NW so less urban - but at age 9 with a gizmo watch. I have a knee child who is 8 and a female - she has a different personality and I wouldn’t allow her yet. She is more timid.

[Anonymous]

When they are old enough to handle an emergency by themselves. Which I’d agree with someone else only happens when they’re too old for playgrounds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live in the suburbs and allowed this at 6.

Yes in the suburbs you can do this earlier and kids can run around the neighborhood more freely. The flip side is that you wind up driving them around to everything until they can drive themselves (and then have to worry about a teen driver) whereas in the city it takes longer to let them be independent, but then they can be very independent in terms of getting around town, to activities, etc., because they can take public transport most places.

My experience in DC is that public transport doesn't reach far, and it doesn't circulate all that often.

[Anonymous]

Age 9, without an apple watch or gizmo watch. And it was more like 3 blocks away. But she's careful crossing streets and alleys.
At 10, we will let her walk home from school alone much further than that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:15. I say this as an unsupervised child/teen in DC when I was a kid.

Why do you say that?

I'm a little surprised at how young the answers are, but cool.

There are a lot of creeps on the city. It's just different people doing different things. I could give you anecdotes but them people would say my kid would never get in that situation. But in the end, I turned out fine. But I personally do not want my daughter to experience the things I did

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Personally, I would not, ever.

This! Not worth the risk at all to me. Your kid can be the most vigilant, street-savvy, etc. etc., but crazy stuff happens in this world that they are not equipped to navigate. We live in CCDC (which is suburban-level safe), kid goes to Lafayette and we use the playground there when school is out. I never see kids there by themselves. I guess I've seen an adult leave a kid for a minute to run to Broad Branch when there's a bunch of other kids (and parents) around, but that's it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Personally, I would not, ever.

So your parents escort you to the playground when you go with your child?

[Anonymous]

Very kid dependent but probably 9. However, I would worry a little bit that they are too old for the playground at that point and will get in the way of younger kids. If you don't have a watch is there a walkie talkie that would go that range?

[Anonymous]

12

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Very kid dependent but probably 9. However, I would worry a little bit that they are too old for the playground at that point and will get in the way of younger kids. If you don't have a watch is there a walkie talkie that would go that range?

You think 9 is too old for a playground? Most 9 year olds are still happy on a playground.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Very kid dependent but probably 9. However, I would worry a little bit that they are too old for the playground at that point and will get in the way of younger kids. If you don't have a watch is there a walkie talkie that would go that range?

You think 9 is too old for a playground? Most 9 year olds are still happy on a playground.

Lol, what I gather from posts that I've read on here is that's perfectly normal for kids to ditch their childhoods around 9. It's like parents expect it and act like something wrong with their kid if they don't. There are plenty of is my kid too old posts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live in the suburbs and allowed this at 6.

Yes in the suburbs you can do this earlier and kids can run around the neighborhood more freely. The flip side is that you wind up driving them around to everything until they can drive themselves (and then have to worry about a teen driver) whereas in the city it takes longer to let them be independent, but then they can be very independent in terms of getting around town, to activities, etc., because they can take public transport most places.

My experience in DC is that public transport doesn't reach far, and it doesn't circulate all that often.

Where do you live? Plenty of transit options in most parts of the city, especially once they learn how to take the bus!

[Anonymous]

Started letting my DS do this around age 8, but we are in the suburbs. The playground is farther away, and he walked solo to meet friends there. It was maybe 4 blocks, but he knew probably a dozen people who lived along the walk and could he could have knocked on lots of doors if there was an emergency. AND odds were good there would be other moms of kids at his school who had my number, so they could call me too. I got him a walkie/talkie watch type thing soon after we started letting him go. Covid was the impetus for us to take this leap, because he had multiple younger siblings who were still napping at different times and DH trying to work in our tiny house and I just couldn’t always hang out at the park when his friends were going to be there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’d say 10ish but would feel a lot better with a group of three instead of two. 8 definitely seems too young to me. The Bancroft playground is kind of isolated since it’s behind the building which would worry me a bit unless they were going at a time the playground is known to be busy. I live nearby but not in Mt P.

Agree with this. That playground is pretty isolated. Maybe 5th grade with more than 2 kids and with a phone watch or similar.