Would you let your K-3rd grade child walk to school alone?

Sadly, not these days. I know I used to walk to the bus stop as early as kindergarten and then rode the bus to school on my own. These days I see the car lines at schools back up a mile. There is just too much danger lurking out there to take that kind of risk. We moved into a neighborhood where we live across the street and a blcok down from the elm. school. We chose this location based on the ease of escorting our daughter to schol. Unfortunately, we have to sell due to the divorce, but I would choose a similar location in a heartbeat.

I could never see me letting my kids walk to school alone at that age, especially not in urban areas. Oddly enough, when my brother was in preschool (so he was 4 years old), he INSISTED he be allowed to walk to school alone, no ways about it. We lived in a small, close-knit community at the time where everybody knew everybody else, and if someone new came to town everyone knew in about 15-20 minutes. So this is what my mom did - she set up visual checkpoints with her neighbours to keep an eye on my brother. As soon as he was about to leave my mom's visual range, she'd call her friend #1 on the phone to let her know to look for my brother. When he was about to leave friend #1's visual range, she'd call friend #2, and so on. My mom had about 4 or 5 other people watch my brother all the way to preschool! And my brother never knew until about 5 years ago when she told the family this story at Christmas time. Hilarious, no? It's funny looking back on it now, considering what kind of environment we lived in back then, but my mom would have never done it in today's world. ~Wyrdsister

For God's shake people! Respect your kids. Try to give them as much attention as they deserve. Letting them go to school by their own, it won't make them more independant or it won't help them to grow up faster. I think children deserve attention and just think, if your child is kidnapped what are you going to do?

Since I am not a parent,I will just share to you about my experience when i was a kid.I was fetched by grandfather until I reached 3rd grade. In the 4th grade,my mother and sometimes my father fetched me at school. When I was in high school, we just go my father's office where we could wait up for my father to finish his work and we go home together. By the time I went to college, my father or mother fetched when I'm getting home late but most of the time I go home alone or with friends.When I was working ,my father sometimes drive me to my working place. Nowadays,it's much better that you drive your kids to school and pick them up.

i would never let them walk at such a young age.. im pretty sure no1 would thats 100% wrong..then again there r ppl in other parts of the world that might i guess.. id always give them a ride until they think they can walk and id only let them walk if its like 3min walk or somethin.. or else take the bus at like maybe gr6 or 7 or earlier if they think they can.. id let them decide.. if i asked when they in gr1 or 2 then im sure they would say they want a ride instead of walkin

i am not a parent but i would never let my child of that age walk to school alone, u cant trust anyone these days maybe many years ago but not now.

I could never do that the world is way to dangerous now and even if it wasn't I still wouldn't allow it. You have to make sure you child is safe as much as you can and them walking alone you wouldn't know. I think way to many parents now are letting kids grow up way to fast. I say just put them in front on a tv turned to the disney channel or nickeloden and let them be kids.

No I walk my kids to school everyday and my oldest is in grade five but my other kid in grade two. So that is why I walk them to school. Maybe next year when she hits grade six I will let her walk to school.

I wouldn't. Just not safe. We lived three doors down from my elementary school, and I still wasn't allowed to walk alone. I had to walk with my brother (3 yrs older).

I do not have children...but, there is NO WAY I would allow a K-3rd grader to walk to school alone. The world just isn't safe. Children need to be allowed to be children and part of childhood is the parent taking care of and supervising many aspects of a child's day to day living. This includes getting the child to school A child of this age is still developing many reasoning skills. The ability to reason whether or not a person is a stranger may seem easy to us, but try to put yourself in the shoes of a vulnerable child. If an adult were to walk up to a 5 - 8 year old and tell them that mom or dad sent them to get the child, what would you think the child would do. At this age, children are generally taught to respect the adults they encounter.

When my oldest daughter started school I let her walk. We lived right across the street from the school but she had to walk down to the stop light and cross the highway by herself. I watched her going to school and coming home after school. It was hard for me but she didn't want me to walk with her. She's 21 now. So back then we didn't worry as much about children being abucted like today. If I would have lived farther away I would have never let her walk. You can't be to careful these days

No. I would never let my young child walk to school no matter how close we lived. First, I am way too paranoid to let a child most any age walk to school except maybe a teenager. And second, people are way too crazy. I always fear someone taking my child. So I would not want to do anything that would make it easier for someone to take my child.

HECK NO!

Walk with them if you are concerned. Walking is good exercise, better for the environment and gives the kids a way to gradually wean themselves into independence. Driving just breeds lazy dependent children who never learn how to navigate the streets or appreciate nature.

C i think ur being overposessive for your kids in ur apporach its not at all bad to if there kids behave like this because they are young enough to understand wats wrong and right so plz dont worry abt this

I'd rather drive my kids anywhere and I don't care how old they are. I'm afraid to let them get kidnap or something. I want to make sure that they're safe always.

There is no way no how i would have ever let my kids walk to school by there self

I am not a parent yet but i would definitely take care that my kids dont move alone anywhere outside my sight, as long as they r capable of doing it themselves

i don have kid

I would never let my child walk to school if they were at least under 12-13! I think that there are a lot of weird people in the world today and children can easiy be harmed or taken advantage of. Kindergarten-3rd grade is way too young for a child to be walking alone to school.