[babydawn]

I am having a delema with my two school age children. One will be in 2nd and one will be in 1st and they want to walk to and home from school SO bad this year. I would like to let them. I think it is good for children. It gives them extra exercise, helps them to learn to be independant, etc. Most of the children in my neighborhood walk, so at least on the way home, (walking to school seems to be more staggard) they would be maybe not WITH a huge group of kids, but there is a constant stream of kids coming home. My children would never be alone on a street. They are also very responsible. I wouldn't have to worry about them going to a friends with out telling me, or veering off of the course. We have walked it many times and have talked about rules and what they are allowed to do and what not. But in light of recent events that have happened in our state, although several hours away from where I live, (the Groene kids) it has made me very afraid for my children. I have checked the sex offender registry and there are no registered sex offenders on their route to school. And I keep thinking, I should just let them ride their bikes because it would be harder to get a child on a bicycle. But I am still afraid for them. It is about a mile to their school, my 3 soon to be 4 year old has a hard time walking or riding his bike both ways, which is why I am not just walking with them. I am trying to figure out if I am just being paranoid and if I should allow my children to walk or ride their bikes to school. Any suggestions to put it into perspective would be great.

[bellerd]

You're alot braver than I am! My two oldest are 12 and 9, and I won't even let them go out and ride bikes without each other. Of course, we live in a huge town (Houston) and have a registered sex offender about 8 houses down.

I think it's really going to be dependent on how comfortable you feel with the idea. You could always try it on a trial basis, without giving your kids a firm commitment. They may find it's not as fun as they thought it would be, especially once they're lugging all those books and homework each way, or when it's too cold, etc.

Of course, if you're gut is telling you no, then there's probably a reason.

[babydawn]

It is not that my gut is telling me no, it is more like I am a really paranoid parent and always have been. I don't even allow my children to have sleepover with friends because I am so paranoid. Sometimes I feel just fine about it, and then I watch the news and all of a sudden, I am paranoid about it again. My community has about 60,000 people in it. So it is not tiny, but it is far from huge. I just know that I would never forgive myself if my child was hurt in a situation I could have prevented. On the other hand, I don't feel right about keeping them locked up in the house either. I feel like children need to experience things. I just don't want any of those experiences to be permanently damaging. I heard a really wise man say once that although you should always do your best to protect your children, it is not good to keep them away from everything either. They need to be able to experience life, and they need to be able to learn and grow and learn how to make decisions and learn how to handle situations. It is hard for a child to learn to do any of that if they don't ever have the opportunity. I keep coming back to that everytime I start to get realy worked up about things. And I know I didn't quote him word for word, but the just of what he ment is there. I feel the same way. But you are right, I should probably just do it on a trial basis and see how it goes.

[tsalk]

Boy can I sympathize with you. My house is very close to the entrance to my son's school. He walks through my backyard and across the parking lot and he's there. I still have trouble with this. All last year (3rd grade - his first year in this school) I walked with him through my backyard and watched him walk into the school. I used to wait for him in the backyard after school, but the school felt that it would be better for Calvin if I came and picked him up and walked him home. There had been a couple of times that he had walked off the sidewalk without looking to make sure no cars were coming.
This year, he insisted he was old enough to ride his bike to school. It isn't far since we live right next door. But we live on a very main road with tons of traffic and if he's riding his bike, he has to ride on the sidewalk of this main road and can't ride through the backyard. It took a lot of soul searching for me.....but we ended up making a deal. I filled out the walker/rider form for him. For the first week I walked him like normal and then let him walk home by himself. I waited inside for him. If he could do that for the first week then he could try riding his bike. It worked. But I have to tell you how awful it was for me to watch him ride off to school by himself for the first time. Now he doesn't ride his bike. It's too much trouble with his viola and his backpack and having to lock it up and all the stuff that goes along with it. He's asked me to walk him to the end of the backyard. I take the dog and he likes saying goodbye to her. Then she and I watch him walk into the school and then head home.
Maybe you could make a deal with your kids to walk1/2 way with them? That might ease both your mind and let them have some independence. Or maybe this year you could walk with them and next year they could walk themselves or you could walk with them there and they could walk back alone.....or some other kind of compromise.....there's tons of compromises. Unfortunately, none that will ease your mind.
Maybe there are some neighbors you know along the way that you can ask to secretly keep their eyes on? That might help ease your nervousness.
Good luck with this struggle. Tracy

[babydawn]

I have allowed them to walk home, but I got them scooters and it cut the amount of time it took them in half which has really helped me out alot. I did compromise at first and had them ride their scooters home with the children of a friend of mine that lives in my neighborhood, but then one day, she picked up her kids and my kids got home 15 minutes earlier. So now I have them go by themselves and they get home rather quickly. I walked them to school everyday until it got too cold for my baby to be out, now I just drive them every morning, and I put their scooters in the back of the car and they ride home alone. I still sit and wait for them everyday and if they are even 5 minutes later than normal, I start to panic. So far so good, they do great, they love it, I can let my baby finish out her afternoon nap, and they are getting some exercise.