What age to allow play outside alone?

[Homeschoolmom3]

When they were younger, they used to carry a whistle (the kind on a breakaway lanyard). 

 

If your playground is visible from the house, I'd vote yes. If it's not, would it be possible to invest in a low-end camera kit? Maybe a couple aimed at the areas he is allowed to play, and one aimed at the driveway. 

 

Great idea!  Will have to look into that.  We used to have a buzzer that sounded when someone was coming up our driveway.

 

Thanks for all your comments!

[luuknam]

My oldest has special needs, so I voted based on my youngest (besides, I don't quite remember for the oldest - 6 or 7?). My youngest is almost 5, and I'm not really letting him out alone for 10+ min. I am letting him out bicycling down the street (on the sidewalk) with my oldest, who's 8. And I'm sure that when he's 5 I'll be okay with letting him play outside alone. He'd be about 5.5yo though, since I'm not planning on letting either kid play outside alone for 10+ min when it's 10F or colder in winter, so though he's turning 5 in November he probably won't play alone outside alone for 10+ min until the spring. I'm not sure at what point I'd let my kids play outside alone if there is a real risk from extreme weather (last year we had a few "snow days" that were really "cold days", since they canceled school because they didn't think it was safe for kids to wait for the school bus when the temp is -15F), but that's a different question.

 

ETA: I've let my 4yo (almost 5yo) play outside alone at times, but I check on him every few minutes (either by making sure I still hear him or by actually looking), not every 10+ minutes. I gradually increase how often I check, which is why I'm confident that at some point while he's 5 I'll let him out for 10+ minutes. Anyhow, depends on the kid and the neighborhood. With my oldest I was also more paranoid because my neighbor works for CPS...

[PeacefulChaos]

I voted over 7.

 

I believe the boys were 7 and 5 (close to 6) the year I started letting them go outside all the time.  Link was, at that time, allowed to go out by himself, too, and stay in our yard only.  He is currently the only one allowed to go a couple of blocks (back and forth from the house to where DH and I work, generally) by himself.

Astro couldn't go out by himself until he was 8.  

Pink can't go out by herself yet.  She can go out with the boys and go anywhere they go as long as it's in the same 'green space' (our yard, neighbors' yard if the kids are home, neighbors' yard behind us if the kid is home, and the empty field next door).  She can't go on the roads yet, but she's honestly just not good enough at riding her bike yet to do so without me or DH there, anyway.

 

They also have to be 8 to be able to go out of sight on the roads - riding bikes and whatnot - even if they are together.  There are also only certain times of day I allow it at this point.

 

Granted, my situation sounds very different from yours.  Link was/is a responsible kid, but we live in a sort of weird area... we have neighbors and neighborhood kids, and we've got a decent backyard for in town, but we get a fair amount of traffic because we live right in front of a retirement/residential care facility.  All the delivery trucks, the hundreds of employees, etc, all go down our road multiple times a day.  We also have a 'motel'  just across the field/empty lot from our house in the other direction.  Now, the motel seems to house mostly Hispanic immigrants and they don't bother me.  When we first moved into our house, however, it was much sketchier - it was considered a go-to for illegal activities, and our house was surrounded by the FBI once (when my grandparents were visiting, of all times!!   :lol: )  Not that that's a good excuse.  I know anything can happen anywhere!  But they were also very young at the time (5/6 and 3/4) so sending them out by themselves wasn't really even on my radar yet. :)  

Oh, and we don't have fences.   :)  No one in our little 'neighborhood' does (well, technically, the residents of the apartments that are part of the retirement home do, but only around a little patio area in their backyard).  

Astro was an insane kid.   :lol:  He was one of those runners.  I mean, he's still a runner but in a good way now!  But when he was little if he wanted to run, it didn't occur to him that there was such a thing as an unsafe thing to run in or toward.  Just ask the ambulance he ran out in front of as it went down our road!!  Because it took him such a long time to be able to assess safe vs. unsafe situations, he didn't go out by himself til 8.  He honestly rarely goes out by himself anyway - he likes people too much.   :)

Pink is more like Link but I still will wait.  If I had windows I could see her from, that would be one thing, but I don't.  The kids utilize all the yard, but the back/side yards are where the most interesting stuff is, and those are the two that I can't see from any windows in the main parts of the house.

 

 

ETA: I like to consider myself pretty laid-back and I aspire to be free range.  :D  In the end I think we're ending up with our kids having about the same boundaries as we did as kids, so that's not too bad.  :)  

[Dramorellis]

At maybe 4 and 7 they were allowed to go out unsupervised in our fenced back yard with me checking periodically. They are pretty much always together. My oldest was just not mature enough to be alone before maybe 7. He panics under pressure so if there were anything to be worried about he would likely forget anything we had discussed about safety. My daughter was allowed to be alone out there at 5 but she was simply more capable of handling herself and independent. I can't even conceptualize a situation where I would leave the 3 year old for more than a few minutes. The oldest is too distractable to keep watch and although more diligent, my daughter is basically the same size as her baby brother so not much help to him. He loves to climb and jump off of the picnic table or porch, throw sticks and rocks at people so he still needs constant supervision when outside.

[nobeatenpath]

When we lived in Australia the answer was never - we had snakes, spiders and all sorts of bitey things living around our house (and unfortunately in our house ...)

When we first moved to the UK we had a large back yard I could see out on to from the kitchen window. It was fenced, and no bitey things. So from age 41/2 onwards DC could play out there alone. Great for snow days when I had stuff to do indoors but he wanted to play in the snow.

 

Really depends on animals, kids maturity and how easy it is to check on them. My brother was off exploring on his own in the rainforest (and riding his bike alone along roads to get there) at age 8. I wouldn't let my kid do that.

[Mommy to monkeys]

It really depends.

Here, we are pretty rural but live on a state highway where people zoom by at high speeds.  I have no fence. I prefer even my older kids to be in pairs here. My younger 4 are not allowed out alone at all.

BUT when we lived in Oklahoma and had a fully fenced backyard, i regularly let my toddlers out on the back slab (which I could see from the kitchen).

 

[...................]

I'll compare your story to my childhood because it was rural very similar situation ...my mom herself grew up in the country so was not a citified person. She never let us play alone outside until about 6 in our giant back yard. She would find things to do outside while I played some when siblings were at school/ she did not babysit me all day. She hung laundry, gardened, etc.

 

after that when we wanted to roam the neighborhood, she let us go far but always the buddy system - preferably 3 kids and you had to be 6 to join in.

[Excelsior! Academy]

It can vary a lot due to location and the child's maturity level.

 

Our backyard is fenced with a chain link fence, but backs up to a massive green belt that is visible from a public road.  Because of this we prefer to have our children play outside in pairs or be a bit older if playing alone. 

 

If you have a more private backyard with a privacy fence, 4 would be a reasonable age; in our neighborhood and situation I would say 7 or older.

[gstharr]

We live in a small solidly middle class community just east of downtown Los Angeles.  My 10 year old has never been allowed in the front yard alone.  In fact,  rarely see any kids out front playing  in what is considered a desirable safe community. This situation really bothers me, because I came of age in the 70's in inner city Los Angeles.  I played from dawn to 9 p.m. outside every day, and rode my bike to different neighborhoods  to play.  Back then, there were problems, but it wasn't violent or predatory.

[cottonmama]

I'm comfortable with it around age 4, but only inside the fenced portion of the yard.  Even the 7yo isn't allowed outside the fence by herself.  I watch like a hawk if the kids join the 10yo neighbor girl in her unfenced yard.