OliveOilMom wrote:
I would do whatever was needed to prevent a six year old from wandering out of the house. Just because he knows where he is and where he's going does not mean he's safe. He's six. I don't know where you live but I live in an extremely safe area where we have almost no crime but a six year old would not be safe out wandering alone here either.
My office is close to the city park. It's not that unusual for six year olds to go to the park by themselves around here. They have some kind of girl's club one night a week at a church about three blocks away and one of my nephews daughters used to regularly come to my office after school and then go to girls club and back by herself at the age of seven. When she was six, she walked from the park to my office all by herself to watch cartoons. When she was eight, it was all I could do to get her to wait for her parents to come to town to go to the high school football game with her instead of her going to the game by herself.
In contrast, my sister was visiting one summer about five years ago with her oldest grandson who was about 12. Because of where he lived, he wasn't even permitted to go into their front yard without an adult present, much less wonder around.
Shortly after they arrived, he said that he wanted to go to Dairy Queen. My sister made sure he had some money and told him to go on. He didn't think that she understood correctly. It took her several times to convince him that he heard correctly -- that it was okay for him to go to Dairy Queen and back by himself. When he got back, he couldn't stop talking about how he felt being able to go to Dairy Queen all by himself. After that, he wanted to go to the park. This time it didn't take him as long to understand that he did not have to have an adult with him to go to the park here. After that, he thought this was the best place he had ever been.
08 Jan 2015, 7:46 pm
