How old does a child have to be to wait for a school bus alone?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My sister was 8 years old when a man attempted to abduct her from our bus stop. The only thing that stopped him was my giant 17 year-old neighbor who came running after the guy. He ran away. Please stay with your child at the bus stop.

What happened to your sister was terrifying, I'm sure, but extremely rare. Kids are quite literally much more likely to be struck by lightening than abducted by a stranger.

While it is rare...it happens. 6 is too young to be at a bus stop alone.

Grown women are also attacked when outside alone. So I hope you never leave the house unaccompanied.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son just turned 6 and is currently in kindergarten. Currently I drive him to school every morning at kiss n ride. DS WANTS to take the bus in the morning. Just wondering if it is ok for him to walk half a block to the bus stop. I am not sure if I would even feel comfortable with it but I am wondering if there is some age cut off. We are in Fairfax County.

It isn't an age cut off. Kindergarteners need an adult at the bus stop for pick up and drop off. Next year, it will be fine. Why can't you walk to the bus stop with him?

Because she is lazy

OP here. I drive my kid to school everyday. In those 40 min, I would be showering and getting myself and younger child ready for preschool. If my kid can't go to the bus stop alone, I am going to continue to drive him at 8:40.

Can't you shower before 8 am (or whatever the time to bring your child to the bus stop is?) This is so weird.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can't you just walk him to the stop?

I have a second younger child whose preschool starts at 9. I am not even sure what time the bus comes but I know it would be about 40 min earlier than when we need to be out the door.

I would never let a child that young do that. Not for many years.

You wouldn't let a six-year-old walk half a block to the school bus stop? Would you let an eight-year-old? Would you let a ten-year-old? How old would the child need to be?

42.

Well, 42 is the new 6...

OP here. I very clearly remember walking home alone from my elementary school in kindergarten. You could see the elementary school from our house. I'm going to guess it was 1.5 blocks.

We moved to Philadelphia when I was 7 years old. I walked several city blocks to go home. I have driven this road as an adult and it was probably about half a mile.

We live in a very safe neighborhood. My son would have to walk to the end of our cul de sac to catch the bus. It is just too much trouble to rush unnecessarily and cut our morning routine by 30 minutes. Since our entire routine from wake up time to out the door is currently about 45 min, I am not going to readjust just so my son can ride the bus with some friends for 15 min.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son just turned 6 and is currently in kindergarten. Currently I drive him to school every morning at kiss n ride. DS WANTS to take the bus in the morning. Just wondering if it is ok for him to walk half a block to the bus stop. I am not sure if I would even feel comfortable with it but I am wondering if there is some age cut off. We are in Fairfax County.

It isn't an age cut off. Kindergarteners need an adult at the bus stop for pick up and drop off. Next year, it will be fine. Why can't you walk to the bus stop with him?

Because she is lazy

OP here. I drive my kid to school everyday. In those 40 min, I would be showering and getting myself and younger child ready for preschool. If my kid can't go to the bus stop alone, I am going to continue to drive him at 8:40.

Can't you shower before 8 am (or whatever the time to bring your child to the bus stop is?) This is so weird.

Why is it so weird? We wake up at 7:30-7:45. I fix kids breakfast and shower around 7:55. I come back downstairs around 8:15 to get kids dressed and out the door around 8:35. If I had to walk my kid to the bus stop, it would be smack in the time that I normally get ready for work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

OP here. I drive my kid to school everyday. In those 40 min, I would be showering and getting myself and younger child ready for preschool. If my kid can't go to the bus stop alone, I am going to continue to drive him at 8:40.

OP, suppose you did the following:

1. Find out when the bus comes.
2. Figure out the timing. For example, if the bus comes at 8:00 am, what time would you have to leave the house to get to the bus stop, and what time would you get back? Also, if you didn't have to drive your older child to school, what time would you have to leave the house to get your younger child to preschool?
3. See if you can figure out a way to make that work.

OP here. I am fairly certain the bus comes between 8:00 and 8:10. We currently leave our house around 8:35 to get to school by 8:40. If I were to walk my son to the bus, we would need to walk out of the house around 8. I just don't think this is going to work. DS will just have to continue getting driven to school by me.

I don't understand. You would need to walk out of the house around 8:00 to get to the bus by 8:10, and then you would be back at the house by 8:12, which would give you another 23 minutes before you had to leave the house again at 8:35. What am I missing?

[Anonymous]

When it comes to busses and bus stops, we have almost seen it all, from a dog biting a kid, to a kid running out in front of a hummer, to a kid falling and hitting one's head on the sidewalk, to being left alone at the bus stop, to getting on the wrong bus, to being dropped off w/o a parent present. I don't recommend this approach, OP. I'm not even talking about what I've read in the news. I am talking about what my kid and other kids I know have personally experienced!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

OP here. I drive my kid to school everyday. In those 40 min, I would be showering and getting myself and younger child ready for preschool. If my kid can't go to the bus stop alone, I am going to continue to drive him at 8:40.

OP, suppose you did the following:

1. Find out when the bus comes.
2. Figure out the timing. For example, if the bus comes at 8:00 am, what time would you have to leave the house to get to the bus stop, and what time would you get back? Also, if you didn't have to drive your older child to school, what time would you have to leave the house to get your younger child to preschool?
3. See if you can figure out a way to make that work.

OP here. I am fairly certain the bus comes between 8:00 and 8:10. We currently leave our house around 8:35 to get to school by 8:40. If I were to walk my son to the bus, we would need to walk out of the house around 8. I just don't think this is going to work. DS will just have to continue getting driven to school by me.

That is the time my kids eat breakfast. It is hard to get my younger kid out the door. I want to shower in those 10 min. We also live in a neighborhood with large yards. To walk to the end of our cul de sac would be annoying to do in the morning. It won't work for us. My son will probably never take the bus.

I don't understand. You would need to walk out of the house around 8:00 to get to the bus by 8:10, and then you would be back at the house by 8:12, which would give you another 23 minutes before you had to leave the house again at 8:35. What am I missing?

[Anonymous]

Even if he didn't have to cross a street, does he know to make sure it's okay to cross driveways? Lots of people are horrible drivers and probably speed out of their driveways in the morning. I wouldn't let my kindergartener go alone. Even my first grader will dart across a street ahead of me, so I don't trust him yet either, and that's with me there telling him not to do that.

[Anonymous]

NP. What about if stop is on busy road like Rockville pike or Lee Hwy, but DC never has to cross the street? What age?

[Anonymous]

You have to make that judgment based on what you know about your kid and your neighborhood and where the bus stop is. Are there any busy streets he would have to cross? Does he understand the danger of cars and navigate streets responsibly? Are you certain he would go to the bus stop consistently and not wonder off? Do you live in a neighborhood where people would nudge him the right direction if he was picking flowers instead of heading for the bus? Probably 20 years ago, no one would have thought twice about this.

[Anonymous]

I bring my preschooler to the bus stop every day. So do many other parents at the same stop. Totally normal. It takes max 10 minutes out of your routine.

[Anonymous]

People she doesn't feel like doing what she would need to do to accompany her kid to the bus stop!!! Why is that so hard to understand? It would disrupt her routine, which isn't worth it to her. Whatever. Fair enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My sister was 8 years old when a man attempted to abduct her from our bus stop. The only thing that stopped him was my giant 17 year-old neighbor who came running after the guy. He ran away. Please stay with your child at the bus stop.

Statistically, your child is thousands of times more likely to die while driving to school than he is to be abducted by a stranger...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People she doesn't feel like doing what she would need to do to accompany her kid to the bus stop!!! Why is that so hard to understand? It would disrupt her routine, which isn't worth it to her. Whatever. Fair enough.

OP here. Thank you. If my child's school start time changed or something else changed, I would change our routine. Our routine is fine the way it is. We live in a neighborhood with large yards and it would be a pain in the ass to walk past the 4 houses plus yards to get to the end of our cul de sac. The bus stop is just out of my vision from our window. I don't want to wake up my elementary school earlier just so he can hang out with his friends for 15 min on the bus ride to school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son just turned 6 and is currently in kindergarten. Currently I drive him to school every morning at kiss n ride. DS WANTS to take the bus in the morning. Just wondering if it is ok for him to walk half a block to the bus stop. I am not sure if I would even feel comfortable with it but I am wondering if there is some age cut off. We are in Fairfax County.

It isn't an age cut off. Kindergarteners need an adult at the bus stop for pick up and drop off. Next year, it will be fine. Why can't you walk to the bus stop with him?

Because she is lazy

Go away. So rude and unnecessary. She has a kindergartener and at least one younger child. You know nothing.