My son used to walk to his second junior school on his own; the first was two miles away with no footpath, so not feasible, but the second is less than a mile, so no problem. And he and his friends used to go out and play 'dens' totally unsupervised from about 10 years old. Yes, you worry, but you can't 'cotton wool' them. They have to learn to make decisions and assess risk for themselves - certainly before the time they go to secondary school.

Edit: When he and his friends were in the scouts a group of three of them aged 11 and 12 did a five-mile walk across country then camped out, cooking their own meal, to earn a particular badge. All unsupervised.

That why I feel i have to let Matthew out on his own to the shops, much as I worry I know that if I have to let him have some freedom. There are children as young as three playing out on the street and they always come knocking asking if matthew is allowed out, I am seen as the mum who is really strict because I always say no, sorry but we have a decent size garden he can play in and we go to the local park everyday so why would he need to play on the street this is the reason we always seem to have everyone elses kids in our house.
Mary

I have been leaving my eldest - just turned 13 at home alone through the day for at least a couple of years now.  Usually it is for short periods, but has been for a few hours on the odd occasion.  He is quite happy with this and is VERY sensible.  I started letting him walk home alone from junior school when he was in year six to prepare him for the journey to secondary school.

I have recently started letting all three of my boys (7, 9 and 13) go to the park with friends (involves crossing a main road at a crossing).  I do worry, but I feel that they were missing out by not playing outside and I am not sure that they are safer in my street due to the cars zooming along intermittently.

I have not left the younger two at home, even with their older brother, HOWEVER, I did once let the eldest and middle ones come home on a bus from the town centre alone - and then they were of course at home alone until I arrived a short time later.  I did this (as they wanted to) because I saw them onto the bus and it stops at the top of our turning and I felt it gave them some independence.

I do feel it is a bit strange that people are happy to let their children out into the streets with cars, strangers, etc, but feel it is more dangerous to leave them at home.  I don't know if I go along with this when I think about it, but I do it myself.