What age would you allow your kids to walk around a park with a similar aged sibling?

[lovemy4sweeties]

We're planning to go to WDW during the fall homeschool days. My oldest 2 will be 11 & 12. I'm comfortable with them having some freedom at home: walking to the Pizza place for lunch, walking the mall and meeting up with us at a designated time/place, staying home together if we're out with the younger kids, going for bike rides etc. I'm fairly certain I'm comfortable with them walking around a WDW park together and meeting up in an hour or 2 as long as they have a cell phone with them and we can communicate. Does this sound reasonable to you? Am I crazy to even consider it?

 

[momdad4kids]

Ours are 14 , 11, 11 and 11, we let them have a lot of freedom together here going different places around our small town. In the parks I wouldn't have an issue with them going off with their older brother but there is 1 that I wouldn't but only because of her maturity/responsibility issues (shes neither lol) I really don't want to spend half a day searching down her glasses, backpack, cell phone ect ect ect and I don't think it would be fair to our oldest to be responsible for her either.
I guess what I'm trying to say is you know your kids and if you think they're up for the challenge then id say go for it. I'll get called on this but I think sometimes we tend to over-parent our kids and I think they benefit from being away from us in the right situations

 

[Hannathy]

yes I would and have. It is no different than at the mall , I would actually argue safer because it is a much more controlled/limited access crowd.

At 14 my DD stayed at Epcot herself to go back to one of the countries to buy something she wanted and we headed back to Pop and she came later herself on the bus back to Pop.

 

[abarnes64]

I tend to disagree. My kids are very little 2 and 4 y/o so I am not even considering this yet and do realize there will be a time when I will be faced with this decision. I know a retired police commissioner whom has been on the search task force for missing children in - yes, WDW. I won't go into detail, but it can happen anywhere.

My personal beliefs are to keep a close watch on them for safety and even weirdos and pedophiles buy tickets to WDW. This is one place where parents DO let there guard down more.....Quite scary, IMO.

 

[jezebel73]

I am on the more lenient end of this scale, but on a first trip to Disney, I'd still feel leery, regardless of age. If they have been there before and have a good idea of how things work, absolutely. I also think there is a big difference between a couple of hours inside the park and actually traveling the "world" without supervision. Start small - an hour alone, a separate meal, a ride without parents - and see how it goes.

That all being said, I still think it's a family vacation and the alone time should just be a small portion or perk, not the norm. My daughter loves me more in Disney because it's always "yes" day and I act more like a kid than she does sometimes!

 

[Brian McGee]

That is about the age that I let my kids have some freedom to roam Disney for a small block of time. I'd give them a specific meeting time and place and make sure they stayed in touch via cell/text. It started with shorter amounts of time and if they failed to meet their responsibility, they knew that it was the last time they'd be allowed to go off on their own. The single most important rule is that they stay together and be sure they can easily identify a Disney Cast Member if anything is needed. I'm sure your older 2 love their younger siblings but a chance to spend a little time doing "big kid" stuff without having to accommodate them will make it memorable.

 

[laughinplace199]

Our kids have been to WDW many times. When they were about 13, 11, & 6, we let them have some time in Epcot to do the Perry missions. Dh & I were also in Epcot and the older two kids have cell phones.

We also let DD13 & DS11 explore the resort (AKV) in the evenings. The little guy would be in bed and DH & I were tired, so the older kids would go to the arcade or the movie being shown out by the pool.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Disney won't allow kids under 14 to enter a park by themselves so I would have a hard time allowing kids under 14 to be alone in the park even if I was in the park with them.

 

[WantToGoNow]

Ds12 spent many hours alone at MK doing the Sorcerers of the MK game.

 

[MSSANDRA]

The year that DS and his cousin were 11, they wanted to go off alone. We compromised and would let them go on a ride alone while we waited for them or go into a store or to a CS eatery while we were near-by. The next trip when they were 13 we were fine with them on there own for a few hours with us in the same park. By 11 they had cell phones and both had been in the parks enough that they pretty much knew their way around the parks.

 

[mjkacmom]

I'd allow my kids that freedom at those ages.

 

[Susan C]

I think it is a pretty safe place to let kids have some freedom. I have always found that there are lots of really nice families, who sort of look out for each other. When my DS was younger, I would put him on roller coasters with other families while I ran to the chicken exit.

 

[Allison]

Yes

 

[tazadd0420]

Yes. Depending on maturity of child.

 

[PocahontasLookALike]

I remember being 12 and being allowed to roam the parks with my sister (15 mos older) for short amounts of time. Like less than two hours. That was over 20 years ago with no cell phones. We were just told to be back at a very specific time and location. If late we lost all other privileges to go off on our own again. We were never late. Lol.

 

[FamilyGuy]

I see no issues with this personally. It depends on both the parents and the childrens comfort and confidence with the situation, but I would be ok with my own children being on their own for a while in the same park - starting around age 12 or so.

Perhaps when crowds swell to capacity, maybe not so much. It's much harder to navigate when all those people are packed into the parks.

 

[SmallWorld71]

I don't see anything wrong with your plan, as long as you're confident in their abilities.
A happy medium, if you are unsure, is to be in the same part of the park but riding different rides and then meeting up. For example, older kids could ride Primeval Whirl and/ or Dinosaur while you are with younger ones on Triceratop Spin. Or, older ones are on Space Mountain while you are on TTA with those not able to ride SM and so on....

 

[SEA333]

I tend to disagree. My kids are very little 2 and 4 y/o so I am not even considering this yet and do realize there will be a time when I will be faced with this decision. I know a retired police commissioner whom has been on the search task force for missing children in - yes, WDW. I won't go into detail, but it can happen anywhere.

My personal beliefs are to keep a close watch on them for safety and even weirdos and pedophiles buy tickets to WDW. This is one place where parents DO let there guard down more.....Quite scary, IMO.

At 2 and 4, I would never have thought my kids would be self-sufficient enough to be alone anywhere much less Disney.

Fastforward 10 years....my kids have grown up!!!

(not directed toward PP, just my own feelings on the subject): We are aware of the dangers of the world, but with all due respect, there will always be missing children, but the likelihood that they will be MY children is very small. I wish that it would never be ANYONE'S kids, but the odds of my kids turning up missing in DW is very, very small. We hear about the stories of kids who do go missing *because* it is so rare.

That being said, I also thought that way about my kids walking around in the neighborhood until a 17 year old boy was hit by a car and died at the scene. It was his fault...he had earbuds in and rolled out on his skateboard in front of the car of a 38-year old father who was NOT speeding, it was about 3:30pm, in daylight, and the man stayed with the teen and even followed him to the hospital because the boy did not have ID on him and nobody knew who he was or how to contact his parents. It was awful. It really hit home that anything can happen, at any time, and it does scare me a little to let my kids walk home from school/etc.

But...(again! LOL) I have to. I have to let them grow up and experience things, and make choices (ie. do I cross now, or wait for that car that is WAAAYYY down the street to pass?) I have to give them to freedom to learn on their own because I have no plans to follow them to college or live with them when they are married or go with them on a job interview so that I can always make sure they are OK. My job as a parent is to raise them to have the confidence to one day become independent, responsible, respectful adults, and like it or not, there will be a day they will be old enough to go off on their own at DW.

SO, my answer is, my kids are (almost) 14, (almost) 10, and 8. I would let them go together anywhere at our resort together alone, and I would let them go together to a ride alone while I sat on a bench or shopped somewhere close. If my oldest had a similar age sibling, I would let them go off alone for however long we were in a park for the day as long as they checked in every now and then. My rules would be that they have to stay in the park and cannot take transportation out of the park without us.

When DS is 15-16, he will pretty much be able to do/go wherever he wants whenever he wants (at WDW LOL...not in life overall!!)

 

[kiramay]

I'd say teens. Our next, next trip is approx 2018. My twins will be 13, and I foresee having no problem with them going off on their own together. But I wouldn't trust them to watch their younger brother, who'd only be 8, so he'd stay with us.

 

[smiths02]

I thinks it depends on maturity of the kid and level of comfort at WDW and the need to be independent. Have your kids been several times? Are they good navigators with maps?

For us, it probably wouldn't happen until the teen years at least for our oldest because 1) he gets lost easily 2) he doesn't have a sibling his age to help him 3) Disney is family time not go off on your own time but the biggest reason would be 4) I can plan a day at Disney MUCH better than he can LOL

In your situation, with all the other kids listed on your signature line, I would think that the 11/12 year old could get a lot accomplished and not have to do too much "baby" stuff

Also, I hear PP about the pedophile thing. My DH is in law enforcement. But how many people are snatching 11/12 year olds walking around MK with a sibling?