At What Age?

[northernmom2boys]

I need everyones opinion.At what age did you let your kids go biking around the neighbourhood with their friends.My kids are 9 and 6 and lately their friends of the same age who live a couple of blocks away come over and play and they have been asking me if they can go biking around the neighborhood.I let them go to the end of our street(which is a dead end)My dh thinks I am being over protective.I just think they are still too young to be out of my site for too long.helpppp

[Tamerama]

I think it depends on where you live. But I don't let my kids off our culdesac and they are 10 & 9. (and yes their friends ride their bikes all over the neighborhood) I need to be able to see them when I look out the window still..I don't know what the "right" age is..but unless you would leave them home alone you shouldn't let them ride off alone.

[FrugalMomof3]

I too think it depends where you live, my kids were allowed only in view distance when they were that young, or shall I say yelling distance, if I yelled their names they had to come or else I freaked out, lol.

[annymoll]

We used to be able to ride all over the neighborhood when we were kids, and I grew up in a suburb near KCMO.Not now. In smaller towns it may be safer, but your kids still seem young to me. I would not let a 10 year old, and positively not a 6 year old, that far out of my sight either. I think you are doing the right thing.

[mommy4ever]

Everyone is different. We live in a "nice" neighborhood, yet last year there were 4 attempted kidnappings. My son 12 is permitted since he was 10 to ride around the block on his own. Though now with the younger ones, dd10 and dd8 can but only if together. power in numbers. They must check in.We have the walkie talkies as well. They work ok for this. It's not like it was when I was a child, be gone for several hours,and no one be concerned. It's a different world out there.

[Neeley]

It all depends on your neighborhood and the maturity of the kids IMO. Mine were all over our area at ages 7 and 5. We lived in the house I grew up in and knew everyone. The kids had to stay together and DD always had her cell phone with her. Our neighborhood was full of kids and they all played together constantly. At any one time there was always at least 6 or 7 kids playing. There was one certain street that had the "awsome hill" all the kids loved to ride, skate and skateboard down. If they were not all at the hill, they were at my house or another child's house. All of the parents looked out after all of the kids. I was always comfortable letting them play and ride around.

[crazyBMB]

I think it depends of a lot of things, age, maturity, street smarts, what their friends/parents think and the location and distance.
No matter what, I would still would be watching and peering around anyway.

[YankeeMom]

My kids don't even go outside without me, so forget biking on their own. Even when we lived on a cul-de-sac they didn't ride their bikes around the neighborhood by themselves.

[northernmom2boys]

thank you all for making me feel better .When we grew up we would leave in the morning and come back at night,no worry.I wish it was the same now.I guess I will know when they are or more like when I am ready for them to go farther.Thank you all again

[pita1213]

my kids ride their bikes while i walk the dog. they have to stay in my sight and not get too far ahead. basically they stop at corners and wait for me. the blocks are long so it's not like they are stopping every 20 seconds. when we make one turn that street ends in a cul de sac. they ride to the end and bad while i wait for them. if they want to go out and play on teh playground at the school behind us, i take a chair and sit outside so i can see them. if you're overprotective, so are teh rest of us.

[guest56464]

My daughter is 6 and I wont let her leave the driveway (it's a spacious driveway). The main reason being that my husband (he grew up in this house) when he was 9 he got hit by a speeding car when he left the driveway for the first time on his bike. He wasn't with his parents.

My husband says that his parents let them roam around when they were 9-10... my parents let us roam at 6-7. I did a search for the National Sex Offender Registry and was ok with this neighborhood so I don't think I'll have a problem with letting my daughter roam when she's a little bit older. Now, when we move that will change.



Look! Product placement!

[Sara Noel]

I see kids around here as young as about 5 riding their bikes without parents around. I absolutely flip by this.

This world isn't the same world as when I was a kid. I don't even let my kids play in our own backyard without me, so they can get out of their heads about riding their bikes without me for quite a LONG time. lol

It won't be my kid on an amber alert. Maybe on Failure to Launch, but not on a milk carton. lmao

[Grayce]

My son is almost 10 and just this year he has been allowed to bike around the neighbourhood. Since he was 5-6 he has been able to go back an forth across the street to his friends. There are a couple of kids he plays with and they run between their backyards and ours. He has been able to ride his bike up and down our street. We had limiits, to the mailbox one way and the bend in the street the other way.

[autumnlynn]

I have neighbors on each side with young children, so we take turns sitting out in a lawn chair and watching the kids go down the sidewalk in front of our three houses only. I am very protective when it comes to my children and I'm not ashamed to say it.

[northernmom2boys]

Thank you all I feel like Im not alone now.