Hi, Steemians from all over the world. I'm in Finland and my wife and I have daughter who will turn nine next month. When my daughter started school two years ago, the parents of every single one of the kids in her class that I know of took for granted that after a week or two their kid would walk to school unaccompanied by an adult. We live in a suburb where most of the residential buildings are detached houses. There are some terraced houses and a small number of low-rise blocks of flats. This area has a relatively low population density but the street infrastructure is superb. Our daughter's (now former) school is about 1.2 kilometres from our home. She and her friends had to cross only one street and that was the very quiet street that our home is on. Along the way, there were three underpasses. While some parents transported their children to school by car at least some of the time, none thought they had to do it. In fact, all parents were informed by the headmistress that cars were not welcome on the school premises because of the resulting congestion might result in actual danger to the children. I know some kids here who've taken the bus to school alone since first grade.
When I told a Canadian relative of mine about how it works here, he told me it would be impossible to allow kids to walk to school in Canada because there would be too many dangers. He lives in Fort McMurray and is from Vancouver, BC. Is this really the case in all parts of Canada (and the USA)? I have read horror stories about American families getting into serious trouble with the law or Child Protective Services for letting their kids in the first few grades walk or take the bus to school unsupervised by an adult.
What is considered normal in your country or in your particular area? I'd like to read about how things work where you live in the comments.
I was going to school on my own legs since i was 8. Anyway every country has its own laws for example here are some crazy (from my point of few) england laws.
"children under 12 are rarely mature enough to be left alone for a long period of time
children under 16 shouldn’t be left alone overnight"
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There are no laws or official guidelines as to how old a kid must be to be allowed go out unsupervised by an adult in Finland. But the custody of a child had to be explicitly transferred from parent to a carer and vice versa at nursery school. There were no such rules in primary school except for a ban on bicycles for those in first grade. There seemed to be a general consensus that children from five to six years of age could be allowed to play in their own backyards or common yard areas in residential complexes. For example, when my daughter was six, she and all here friends of similar age were allowed to play unsupervised in the common yard of the same group of terraced houses. None were allowed to venture any further or cross any streets.
What you're quoting sound like guidelines rather than laws.
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