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Image by Gaetan Lee
Back in February in “Planning To Let Go, One Step At A Time” I wrote about how I was preparing myself and my eldest son for him to be able to walk to and from school on his own.
Researching the subject came up with the age of 10, to be appropriate for a child to be able to walk safely by himself.
Kids aged under 10 years are particularly vulnerable because they’re small – they don’t have the fleet-of-foot nimbleness that many older adults have and can’t get out of the way so easily if they get in trouble. They are less good at judging the distance of a car and how fast it is travelling; and their peripheral vision – the ability to ‘see things out of the corner of their eye’ – isn’t as good as an adult’s. So children under the age of 10 shouldn’t be crossing the road without an adult.
Source: ABC Health and Wellbeing
Well yesterday Thinker turned 10 and as promised and prepared for, he walked home from school by himself. I was nervous and he was very eager and incredibly proud of himself when he arrived safely home.
Little Rascal was a little miffed at not being allowed to walk home with his older brother, but I feel that to have him as well would be too much responsibility at this stage. Also Thinker had to wait until he was 10 to do this, so he also needs time to have this as something that just he can do.
We will continue to walk to school together in the mornings. I actually really enjoy this time as it is a really nice part of our day together. I share the school pick ups with another family, so Rascal will still be being picked up at the end of the day and Thinker said:
“I will walk home everyday, unless I break my leg or something like that.”
Happy 10th Birthday beautiful boy and congratulations on being so independent and responsible.