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

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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm well above 40 and I'm all for giving kids some independence.  But 6?  That's still a little kid.  [b]Just because they *can* do something doesn't mean that they are *ready* to do something.[/b]  If your kinder trips and skins his knee on the walk to the bus stop. if a strange dog scares him, if a big kid steals his lunch...his confidence in handling situations all by himself could be shaken forever.  That may sound dramatic, but what seems like a minor thing to an adult can seem very scary to a 50 pound kid.

I've volunteered in kinder/first grade classes and I met a lot of super bright and funny little kids (my own kids were pretty capable at that age and they were tall/big for their age too), but none of them were ready to fend for themselves just yet. And I never met a parent who expected them to...[/quote]

If you're well above 40, then when you were six, almost all six-year-olds were ready to do it. What has changed?[/quote]

I disagree that most kids were getting themselves off to school and carrying around house keys when they were in Kinder.  It is possible that some of you are remembering walking to school or waiting at the bus stop with older siblings and/or friends.  [b]But even back in the day 6 year olds were generally not walking the neighborhood all by themselves[/b].[/quote]

Yes, they were walking by themselves. They really were. It's not Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. It really, actually did happen.[/quote]

I'm only 35, and at 6 I was allowed to be out alone anywhere on my block, and allowed to cross the street I lived on to play with the kids on the other side.  I also walked to school alone, but I agree with other posters, though that's different than standing and waiting for a bus on a corner.  (Which I did starting at 9.)  My DS is 5, and he is allowed to play alone only in our yard (front or back) and in front of the next door neighbor's.  I recognize that times have changed, and today I have to worry about other adults reporting me to CPS, which is a risk I try to minimize.  Times have also changed in that there are practically no other children outside these days, even though there are many kids in the neighborhood.[/quote]

Who are the adults who are calling CPS?  I would think that most people would mind their own business unless a child was truly in danger.  This idea that neighbors run around reporting judgement that differs from their own is troubling.  Who does that?[/quote]

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