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

Forum Index » Elementary School-Aged Kids

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

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[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]

Well o.k. That doesn't mean that it was a smart idea.  My own dad used to wheel a wagon around the neighborhood going door to door by himself collecting bottles/cans from strangers that he could turn in for change when he was 8 years old.  My grandmother was a lovely person but would I allow my own kids to do that?  No way.  Not a good idea.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics