Do you let your kids run errands alone? Walk or ride bikes to school? Why or why not?

[highplainsdem]

6. I don't have kids. I have a lot of younger relatives, as well as lot of

memories of when American kids usually had more freedom. I think decisions about what kids can do depend both on the individual child and the neighborhood.

As a kid, I would ride my bike wherever I wanted to go, until I was supposed to be home for a meal. (This was in suburbs and small towns.) If we lived in the country or were visiting relatives in the country, I'd spend a lot of time away from the house without adult supervision -- riding horses, climbing trees, fishing, swimming. There was quicksand to watch out for in one stream. Rattlesnakes and copperheads. We kids would climb down and across a crumbling rock cliff over a bend in a stream with jagged rocks twenty feet below, and we'd use tree roots to hold onto at times. (I have to admit that when I looked at that cliff as an adult, I thought I'd never let my younger relatives do that.) We were expected to show up for meals, and before dark, usually (after dark we'd usually stay fairly close to the house, though getting away from the lights while telling ghost stories was fun). I think the adults in the family figured that if we were out with other kids close to our age, someone could go for help if someone else got in trouble. But we'd often split up.

And of course, in town, I could run errands to nearby stores, or walk or bike to school on my own, even in first grade. But again, this was in suburbs of cities, or small towns. I never lived in an urban area as a kid.