At what age can your child walk to school alone?

I drove my daughter to daycare this morning. Along the way there is a bus route. Usually there are half a dozen children and a few adults at each stop, but there was one stop this morning that had 3 kids there and no adult. Not one of these kids could have been more than 7 years old.

I lived in Brooklyn, NY when I was 7 years old. My elementary school was about a block and a half away from our apartment building. I walked to and from school. Sometimes with an older kid. Most of the time I walked to school by myself. There was always a concern about child predators, but my parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles taught me well when it came to potentially dangerous situations. But that was a long time ago and times have changed.

So, when is the appropriate age for children to be able to walk to school or wait at the bus stop on their own? The short answer… It depends. It all depends upon the child and their level of awareness.

Do they space out as they walk down the street?
Do you think they safely cross the street on their own?
Can they recognize a dangerous situation and if so have you taught them what to do in case they are in a dangerous situation? Do you feel confident in that they’d know how to handle themselves?

It seems that the consensus amongst parents and professionals is 10 years old. Do you agree with this statement? I came across an absolutely terrific blog, FreeRangeKids, that mentioned an article from the Chicago Tribune.

Most of the world’s kids walk to school by themselves starting in 1st grade. But here? Are you kidding? While the majority of us parents walked to school, today only 10 percent to 15 percent of kids do. How come?

The usual reason parents give is, “Times have changed,” and that’s true. Surprisingly, they have changed for the better.

Nationally, according to U.S. Department of Justice figures, we are back to the crime rate of 1970. In the ’70s and ’80s, the crime rate rose.

It peaked around 1993 and has been going down ever since, dramatically. So if you played outside any time in the ’70s or ’80s, your kids are actually safer than you were.

How come it feels just the opposite? When our parents were raising us, they were watching “Dallas” and “Dynasty.” The biggest crime was big hair. Today’s parents are watching “Law & Order” and “CSI,” shows overflowing with predators, rapists and maggots. TV has gotten so gross and so graphic, “I don’t think there’s a single episode of ‘Law & Order’ that could even have been shown before 1981,” says TV historian Robert Thompson.

Those scary shows — coupled with cable stations running off to Aruba or Portugal every time a white girl disappears — make us feel as if kids are being abducted 24/7. But the truth is: If, for some strange reason, you actually WANTED your child to be abducted by a stranger, do you know how long you would have to keep her outside, unattended, for this to be statistically likely to happen?

Guess.

Now guess again.

Oh, forget it. The answer is 750,000 years, according to Warwick Cairns, author of “How To Live Dangerously.”

Pretty much it is the same stance I have taken for years… years before I became a father. Bottom line is – know your child. Know what your child is capable of and the levels of responsibility he or she can handle. Take a worst case scenario and prepare them for it. I agree we live in an ultra paranoid world. Listen to some of the things on CNN and the grandparrots (errr… grandparents) that repeat them. However, sometimes it is better to over-plan, over-prepare and be overly cautious.

So, there is no definitive answer as to what age your child can walk to school alone. There is common sense, however. If you feel comfortable letting your elementary schooler go out into the wild unsupervised, give it a go a couple times a week and see how things progress.

What are your thoughts on this topic? I’d love to hear from some of the more veteran dads out there.