How old before you let your child go off alone?

[momimouse27]

I find it ironic that you are going off topic to castigate someone else going off topic. Threads go OT all the time. You can't hold back the exchange of ideas and opinions that come from a free discussion.

Point taken. My main issue is that it was what I consider to be a personal attack based on her belief, that it's possible the person she's directing it to doesn't agree with. Now I'll bow out so that I don't keep the whole OT thing going.

 

[vinotinto]

I wandered around many European cities for a few hours at a time during free time on tour group vacations from the ages of 14-17. Well before cell phones or anything like that. Beyond the discussion about maturity level and so on, teenagers need the life skills to be able to navigate getting around on their own. WDW is probably the best place to practice.

I did too. I flew to Europe back in the late 80s without an adult chaperone. I was the oldest in our group of (I think) 8 kids. I had turned 16 the previous month and I was the only 16-year old in the group. The youngest had just turned 13. We were picked up by our summer camp in France. We had a trip every weekend. We were allowed to go around all the cities and towns on our own. We had a full day and evening in Paris by ourselves - no counselors and no chaperones. We missed the metro closing at 1 am and had to walk all the way back to the youth hostel - a few miles away. Made it back around 3 am. Learned my lesson at 16 and always figured out after that the hours of operation of mass transit! Anyway, the idea that a teen would need to be supervised on an enclosed area in the age of cell phones is crazy to me. Learning to act responsibly when you are not being supervised is important for long-term maturity

 

[Roxyfire]

I did too. I flew to Europe back in the late 80s without an adult chaperone. I was the oldest in our group of (I think) 8 kids. I had turned 16 the previous month and I was the only 16-year old in the group. The youngest had just turned 13. We were picked up by our summer camp in France. We had a trip every weekend. We were allowed to go around all the cities and towns on our own. We had a full day and evening in Paris by ourselves - no counselors and no chaperones. We missed the metro closing at 1 am and had to walk all the way back to the youth hostel - a few miles away. Made it back around 3 am. Learned my lesson at 16 and always figured out after that the hours of operation of mass transit! Anyway, the idea that a teen would need to be supervised on an enclosed area in the age of cell phones is crazy to me. Learning to act responsibly when you are not being supervised is important for long-term maturity

I realize now we'd never be able to let our children/teenagers do things like that with our litigious society. But I learned a whole lot doing that. I ended up grouping with 3 other girls and we wandered around Florence Italy at 2 am. It's a wonder we ever made it back alive. I'm pretty sure if my mother knew just exactly what we did she never would've let me go back!

 

[thewesterberg]

I knew our DS had a handle on the place when we were walking up Main Street, on our way to Tomorrowland, and he instinctively turned to the right by the Plaza, to cut through Tomorrowland Terrace. (It was a proud mom moment! ) That was a few trips ago. This past year, when he was 12, he wanted to head back to the resort a bit before we did a couple of days. One time he walked from Japan and met my parents at Spaceship Earth and rode the bus back with them. And then another couple of times he headed out to the bus stop in front of us when I wanted to do a bit of shopping one day at DHS and another day when we were going to go on one more ride at Epcot. He texted us when he got on the bus and again when he got into our room. He enjoyed the independence in a place he feels very comfortable navigating and we felt like he was ready and responsible to have these moments.