6 or less
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15 or over
don't know/no opinion/don't care
Also (in addition to the title question and poll), what caveats would you give it?
*This assumes an "average" child of "normal" development and reasonably maturity/responsibility for their age.
**This assumes a reasonably safe neighborhood, not some extreme of crime/no crime, etc.
“You have never answered but you did not need to. If I stand at the ocean I can hear you with your thousand voices. Sometimes you shout, hilarious laughter that taunts all questions. Other nights you are silent as death, a mirror in which the stars show themselves. Then I think you want to tell me something, but you never do. Of course I know I have written letters to no-one. But what if I find a trident tomorrow?" ~~Letters to Poseidon, Cees Nooteboom
“We still carry this primal relationship to the Earth within our consciousness, even if we have long forgotten it. It is a primal recognition of the wonder, beauty, and divine nature of the Earth. It is a felt reverence for all that exists. Once we bring this foundational quality into our consciousness, we will be able to respond to our present man-made crisis from a place of balance, in which our actions will be grounded in an attitude of respect for all of life. This is the nature of real sustainability.”
~~Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
"We are the offspring of history, and must establish our own paths in this most diverse and interesting of conceivable universes--one indifferent to our suffering, and therefore offering us maximal freedom to thrive, or to fail, in our own chosen way."
~~Stephen Jay Gould, Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History
"Humans are not rational creatures. Now, logic and rationality are very helpful tools, but there’s also a place for embracing our subjectivity and thinking symbolically. Sometimes what our so-called higher thinking can’t or won’t see, our older, more primitive intuition will." John Beckett
Pagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
For myself growing up in the 50's it seemed a lot safer. Living in a housing project,we had parents who took responsibility for all the kids. Our grammar school was on the same grounds as the housing project. We had two LARGE fields on the sides of the projects. Big enough to dig a fort and cover it with dirt in the summer. It would get rained out in the winter. As for the safety,even the cops hesitated to come into the projects. mainly they showed for domestic disputes. A percentage of we kids hit Juvi at about 10-14..little later. I myself was good at keeping out of that. I was stopped for curfew once,and the Cop was surprised I did not have a record living in the project. It was less me being VERY good,more not being caught doing things. I had my own personal set of moral rules,not ones taught to me by parents.
I could walk home for lunch..5 minutes,and stayed out pretty late even at 8-9. This is important,any one who came into the project that was not known,was surrounded by the residents. Once a girl's BF drove in,and was surrounded and questioned until she came out and told everybody he was cool.
MAGIC is MAGIC,black OR white or even blood RED
all i ever wanted was a normal life and love.
NO TERF EVER WE belong Too.
don't stop the tears.let them flood your soul.
my new page here,let me know what you think.
nothing but the shadow of what was
witchvox
http://www.witchvox.com/vu/vxposts.html
I was allowed out in the neighborhood when I was 11, when we moved to NJ. (In Brooklyn I had to pretty much stay under lock & key.) By 12 I was allowed to cross the main road and go pretty much wherever I wanted, as long as I told my parents where I was headed.
Can you hear me, Major Tom? I think I love you.
So...I grew up in a decently sized commuter town to a metropolitan area during the height of the-panic. I was allowed to play outside unsupervised in our own, not fenced-in yard by 5-6. By 7 I could roam pretty much anywhere on our block on foot to play at any of the 4 other yards of houses with kids my age. By 8, I had boundaries of the highway on one side (2 blocks to the east), another busy road (1 block to the north), the railroad tracks (about 4 blocks to the west), and another road that was about 6 blocks to the south by bike, or about a 4 block area that included two schools' playgrounds and some woods behind an empty lot and abandoned old train station...if I was in a group, I could also go to the 7-11, the popcorn store, the city pool, and a local park that expanded a bit--like riding my bike to my piano lesson and to the library downtown. By 11, if I could ride there, I could go there, as long as I didn't cross the highway, carried a quarter, and told my parents roughly where I was going to be and when I'd be home.
“You have never answered but you did not need to. If I stand at the ocean I can hear you with your thousand voices. Sometimes you shout, hilarious laughter that taunts all questions. Other nights you are silent as death, a mirror in which the stars show themselves. Then I think you want to tell me something, but you never do. Of course I know I have written letters to no-one. But what if I find a trident tomorrow?" ~~Letters to Poseidon, Cees Nooteboom
“We still carry this primal relationship to the Earth within our consciousness, even if we have long forgotten it. It is a primal recognition of the wonder, beauty, and divine nature of the Earth. It is a felt reverence for all that exists. Once we bring this foundational quality into our consciousness, we will be able to respond to our present man-made crisis from a place of balance, in which our actions will be grounded in an attitude of respect for all of life. This is the nature of real sustainability.”
~~Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
"We are the offspring of history, and must establish our own paths in this most diverse and interesting of conceivable universes--one indifferent to our suffering, and therefore offering us maximal freedom to thrive, or to fail, in our own chosen way."
~~Stephen Jay Gould, Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History
"Humans are not rational creatures. Now, logic and rationality are very helpful tools, but there’s also a place for embracing our subjectivity and thinking symbolically. Sometimes what our so-called higher thinking can’t or won’t see, our older, more primitive intuition will." John Beckett
Pagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
I'm so glad you started this thread! My kids are getting to the age where I'm having to really deal with this. (6 and 8)
For the poll I voted 9, because at that age and with your asterisks I would assume they would be able to have the mental *and* physical ability to maneuever their environment even in a worst case scenario (if there was stranger danger, stray animal, end up getting hurt, etc) and figure out how to safely get back home or get the problem taken care of.
We just moved from an apartment in an increasingly trashy part of town (3 years no problems, then bam! one year with over 7 instances of cops needing to be involved, and even more instances around the apartment) to a house in a quiet (so far as I know) neighborhood in the country. I didn't even like letting my kids be outside with supervision at the apartment. I would test their abilities by giving them simple tasks (go get something from the car, take the trash to the dumpster which we were right by, etc) and see how long it took them, if they got distracted etc.
I don't remember when I started wandering by myself, but I want to say it was 3rd or 4th grade before I could be on my own with limitations as to how far. I think the boundaries were a)places my parents could step outside and see me from and b)where we could hear each other if we shouted. This summer, I will probably let them be outside by themselves in the unfenced yard. Of course, I also have anxiety so this is an even harder issue lol.
“I am Cat and I walk alone and all ways are the same to me.” ~Rudyard Kipling, The Cat Who Walks By Himself
You have to understand inner city rules to get this. At about 10-12 we did shortcuts,like under the freeway(not generally a real path) and crossing the rail yard(crossing over about 6-8 sets of tracks.) also from time to time jumping a train to go a farther distance(fright trains) Down and around a creek that went under a foundry,and through back alleys. It was like hiking,only through city back alleys. Usually it was 5-10 kids doing this,but each also did it alone from time to time. Now you might think..that was dangerous,but even at 10-11 we all carried knives,and not pen knives,more like buck hunting knives. also gravity blades and switch blades.(Play welcome to the jungle)
- - - Updated - - -
Think "Our gang" TV and movies.
- - - Updated - - -
MAGIC is MAGIC,black OR white or even blood RED
all i ever wanted was a normal life and love.
NO TERF EVER WE belong Too.
don't stop the tears.let them flood your soul.
my new page here,let me know what you think.
nothing but the shadow of what was
witchvox
http://www.witchvox.com/vu/vxposts.html
How far? Like are we talking to the empty lot down the road, to the store a few blocks away, or on the bus downtown?
I was allowed to do the former at 5, the next around 9 and the last one at 12. I don't want to live in a world where kids can't have space to do their own thing. I probably wouldn't let them roam at 5 in the city, but around the neighbourhood is fine if we end up in the suburbs.
Let's go to the dark side shall we?
I had a single mom from 11 on up. I was pretty much unsupervised in the house. I was left alone in the house late at night most weekends. And I was out and about on my own from 12 on up.
I could tell you all the times I was molested. But I don't want to make you panic.
But you should. Because there are things that happen that kids aren't prepared to handle on the spot in the heat of fear. We 'go along' with things when if we had a minute to think about, we wouldn't. We all think our kids are well prepared. But they really aren't. Let's face it adult creeps are way smarter then a child.
On that note, I'd say 13 is good to go out in the day time with a friend.
Satan is my spirit animal
We (our family) moved to the greater Seattle area in 1954. I was three and turned four that fall. I remember walking all over the place alone and I remember my Dad coming after me once because I was playing at a beach on Puget Sound which was a couple of miles from home. At near the end of winter we moved into a house my folks bought and that is where I grew up. We had no restrictions on where we could go and each of us had different interests. I spent a lot of time fishing - the lake was less than a mile away and at 11 I was going into Renton to fish on the Cedar River (about 7 miles one way). I road my bike to get there and back and the only limit was to be home for dinner or before dark. I rode the bus downtown into the city center and to the movies. We had family outings too and hiking trips with Dad into the Cascades and the Olympics. we started hiking when I was about 6 - I was in the first grade. we hiked short trips of about 3 miles and a few that were all day treks that covered more than 14 miles.
I was staying home by myself at 9. But I guess it depends
"Turn, and look in the mirror. What do you see?" Her own brown eyes stared back at her until she was nothing but a blur.
"I see you. Red lipstick spread perfectly over your lush mouth, brown eyes that hold centuries upon centuries of secrets. A face made to entice even the most celibate of men and women alike. A red dress that sways and moves with your body, making you a temptation like no other."
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