8 yr old walking dog alone gets reported

[mama2one]

what age are kids allowed to walk alone?
when did you allow your children out of sight?

I walked alone to school at age 9 and that's when parents in our neighborhood started letting their kids go around and play in each other's backyards


https://www.yahoo.com/gma/child-ser...ing-8-old-214909422--abc-news-topstories.html

 

[joshua 1 9]

I do not ever remember getting a ride to school. I walked from the first grade. I remember when I got tired of trying to find my son when he would run off in a store. One day I just stayed in one spot and waited for him to find me. He was so mad that he had to keep track of me rather then me running around trying to find him.

On the farm kids get their first knife when the are 8 and their first gun when they are 12. In the city they may arrest you if you give them a knife before they are 18. Even though it is legal for them to get a job using power tools at 16.

 

[AnnaDeborah]

Sounds like the caller has an issue with the family - no way could that child be mistaken for a 5 year old, so looks like an attempt to cause trouble for them.

I was allowed as far as the corner shop on my own at 8 and into town as long as I was with a friend and kept to certain rules. I guess a lot of it depends on the area - we knew everyone in our village and people kept an eye out. I probably wouldn't have been allowed so much freedom in a neighbourhood which didn't have such a good community.

 

[SkyWriting]

what age are kids allowed to walk alone?
when did you allow your children out of sight?

I walked alone to school at age 9 and that's when parents in our neighborhood started letting their kids go around and play in each other's backyards


https://www.yahoo.com/gma/child-ser...ing-8-old-214909422--abc-news-topstories.html

In the city it is a real and perceived problem.

 

[Halbhh]

what age are kids allowed to walk alone?
when did you allow your children out of sight?

I walked alone to school at age 9 and that's when parents in our neighborhood started letting their kids go around and play in each other's backyards


https://www.yahoo.com/gma/child-ser...ing-8-old-214909422--abc-news-topstories.html

Yes, there are many reports in the news over the last 10 years of families that know they can trust their under 12 children to walk to the park and such, and others report the children to the police, and then an article gets written on it. There have been some good articles. Lemme see if I can find one of the good ones I read....I'll put it here.

Ah, even better than the one I was looking for:
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/04/hey-parents-leave-those-kids-alone/358631/

 

[Halbhh]

Some interesting new articles I'm seeing --

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/29/well/family/utah-passes-free-range-parenting-law.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/27/opinion/sunday/motherhood-in-the-age-of-fear.html

 

[Dave-W]

I walked alone to school at age 9

I walked to school in kindergarten, age 5. It was about 6 blocks.

By the time I was 9 I could walk or ride bike to anywhere in town. (small town)

 

[Dave-W]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...-nation/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.2a1516f2fb20

https://reason.com/blog/2017/06/07/this-free-range-mom-is-running-for-local

https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2018/04/free-range-parenting/557051/

 

[mama2one]

our child does walk our dog and has been for a while but just on our street

 

[mama2one]

By the time I was 9 I could walk or ride bike to anywhere in town. (small town)

husband did the same but they lived in small town
he had a paper route at age 9 or 10 so he rode bike around town

 

[mama2one]

.

 

[Hank77]

Some interesting new articles I'm seeing --

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/29/well/family/utah-passes-free-range-parenting-law.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/27/opinion/sunday/motherhood-in-the-age-of-fear.html

I love the "Free range kids". Living in a ranching community it made me chuckle but it's really appropriate.

 

[drjean]

The world has changed. It grows worse by the day (so much for evolution).

I was 8 when I went door to door selling Girl Scout cookies... and door to door was 10 acres apart if not more! I was 9 selling greeting cards on the same "block" which was a mile in each direction around (x4)...

 

[Lost4words]

I was allowed out to go to the shops when I was 2 years old. I used to walk there with my 9" knife tucked into my nappy and my 9mm over my shoulder. I never got any trouble. I think the belt of grenades made people wary if me.

 

[hedrick]

One thing we know from research is that people's fear often isn't correlated with actual danger. I'm not convinced that things are actually too dangerous today in many neighborhoods.

 

[mama2one]

I'm not convinced that things are actually too dangerous today in many neighborhoods.

we live in a fairly safe town/neighborhood yet the police have been on our street several times with search dogs as well as with their guns out

(domestic violence situation, people running from police, and house break-ins)

there is no where totally safe from criminals

 

[akmom]

It's hard to say whether people are just overly concerned about children, or if they are just busy-bodies looking to stir up drama.

I let my kids walk and ride their bikes through the neighborhood without me. No one has ever called authorities about it, but they have occasionally asked me if I knew about it or thought it was safe. I don't think everyone approves of it, but my husband and I grew up with similar liberties and think it's important for kids to explore on their own a little. If I had a more aggressive neighbor who called police or child services, I would probably have my children bake cookies and write a card thanking them for looking out for the neighborhood kids, and then I'd have my kids deliver it to them unsupervised. Any further attempts to meddle would then be really awkward, I'd think. Plus that's just my passive-aggressive way. There's a lot worse situations for kids than roaming their own neighborhoods.

 

[Dave-W]

It's hard to say whether people are just overly concerned about children, or if they are just busy-bodies looking to stir up drama.

I think it is the latter in the guise of the former.

 

[Sunshyne]

what age are kids allowed to walk alone?
when did you allow your children out of sight?

I walked alone to school at age 9 and that's when parents in our neighborhood started letting their kids go around and play in each other's backyards


https://www.yahoo.com/gma/child-ser...ing-8-old-214909422--abc-news-topstories.html

I honestly wish I knew. I have a 6 year old and 4 year old. I go to walk my dog (literally across the street and am gone for 10 min or less) and if someone sees my children in the yard, the stranger has literally called the police on me. It's frustrating. I'm so glad school has started back up so I don't have to worry about it anymore.

 

[RDKirk]

If the neighbors were intending to be neighborly, they'd watch over the kids (and the neighborhood in general) rather than calling 911 about kids being there who are supposed to be there.