that is sooooo sad about that 11 year old girl in florida (they recovered her body this morning). is 11 years old too young to be wondering around by yourself? I have seen 5 year olds wandering around the city, crossing busy streets by themselves.

When I see that a 5 year old gets kidnapped and the parents were inside sleeping, it just makes you wonder what the hell the parents were thinking...... an 11 year old seems to be borderline.....I guess it depends on where you live? how far you let them go by themselves, etc....



sidenote - I am pretty sure they got a tip on who the guy was who kidnapped that girl... why the hell would that person who tipped the police wait even a minute to call? They made it sound like they got the tip on maybe Wed. (abduction was sunday).?

 

I have a neighbor (single mom) who has to leave for work early every morning. Around 7am. Her kids who are probably about 6 or 7 years old (first and second grade?)walk to school by themselves. About 5 blocks. Crossing 1 main road and 2 smaller ones. I usually go outside and walk them across the main road whenever I see them. Sometimes they stand there for about 10mins before going across. It's good that they know to wait till there aren't any cars coming. But somehow I don't think they should be doing that unsupervised at that age.

 

I don't know....I don't have kids yet, but I think that this really depends on the kid him/herself. I for one was a latchkey kid since 2nd grade.

I was allowed to walk to school, and walk back. However, I wasn't allowed to cross the main road to go get a Slurpee with the rest of the latch key kids.

By 11, I was not only a latch key kid, but I was also watching my sister who is 6 years my junior.

I heard this morning that they found the girl's body, and I tell you, it hurt. I felt so bad for the girl and family. As for the 'tipper', she probably waited to hear about the $50,000 reward for apprehending the suspect with the eventual finding of the girl.

Also giving the benefit of the doubt to the tipper, she happened to live with the guy. Maybe she didn't get a chance to call immediately because she never had the privacy to do so with the suspect out of the room/house?

 

These days, I'd say not before they're 13: in middle school.

Obviously, that's no guarantee against the type of tragedy that happened in Florida, but with our own three kids there was a noticible increase in maturity between elementary school - 6th grade - and middle school - 7th grade.

This would have to be adjusted according to the child's maturity, but I believe it's a good place to start.

I cannot imagine the grief that young girl's parents are suffering.

 

This is exactly what i was talking about......how can anyone do that to little kids? Nice of you to walk them acrros the street!

It is a different situation for everyone, and I don't know much about that 11 year old. Maybe 11 is old enough to be on your own? Seems young with todays whacky people...

I do recall me being home alone from 3rd grade on since both of my parents worked....

[QUOTE]Originally posted by turbo_pwr
I have a neighbor (single mom) who has to leave for work early every morning.

 

6 months old

 

Why don't you just not reply?

 

I was latch-keyed after the first grade. Walked to school and back. Rural setting no busy roads.

 

Dude it's a joke. Look man, I have first hand experiance if you want to get serious. I was left alone unattended from 4 years old. I had a bad childhood. Not cool to leave the kids alone at home before at least 9 or 10. Even at that, it should not be for more than like 30 minutes. Each state also has laws that differ for that.