Shit, when I was 12 or 13 (so older than that kid, but not by much), my best friend and I decided the fun way to spend our day was to get on the subway and get off at a stop we'd never been to before!

HA! Me too, when we'd come up to Newton to visit my aunt/uncle/cousins. My cousin V. and I would spend ages ridin' them rails. We would always have to get off at Kendall to play the instruments! Of course, now I want to strangle the kids that do that when I'm waiting for the T, but that's just how I know I'm old.

I walked a mile and a half to and from kindergarden. This was in LA, so there was no snow. It may well have been uphill both ways. By the time was in 2nd grade, I was stopping by the liquor store on the way home to buy comic books - which were in front of the counter where they sold cigarettes and bubble gum.

Me too! Only trade LA for Hilo, Hawaii. And my comics were Richie Rich and Archie!

And I still have a packet of Sea Monkeys somewhere...

We would always have to get off at Kenmore to play the instruments! Of course, now I want to strangle the kids that do that when I'm waiting for the T, but that's just how I know I'm old.

Heh.

We ended up in like Quincy, and walked back to downtown.

Attention JonB! Have you seen this? [link]

My elementary as .2 miles away, around the corner, basically. I don't think my mom walked me/met me at the crosswalk for the whole year of kinder. Probably just the first few weeks, maybe. I don't recall. Definitely not after the first day in first grade. For jr. high/middle school, the bus stop was about the same distance away. Sometimes we could even convince the driver to take a slightly different route and drop us off right in front of a friend's home. That was awesome!

I was driven by upperclassmen/drove myself to high school. (And my brother to middle school. Uhg. We fought a lot.)

I'm sure I've told this story before, but I always walked to grammar school by myself, after the first day or so in K and 1st, since we moved in between. In both cases it was basically a straight shot. I found out years later that my father followed me for a while after I was going "by myself"! Hilarious. Can you imagine this big man following a little girl down the street? Now that seems like a scary situation!

Casper doesn't walk to school by herself yet, even though it is only 2 blocks away, because she is only 4. There is a street to cross without a crossing guard, and I half worry that she would stop to look at something or think about something and forget to go all the way to school. mr. flea does drop her off on the corner and let her cross with the guard and go into school by herself, though.

I walked 3/4 of a mile to school at age 10, and took the suburban shuttle bus home from the center of town to near my house after choir practice when I was that age too. I am pro-independence, for those developmentally ready to have it. Four is a little young, still, to me.

Luckily flea 4 is also young enough they usually don't yet feel the need to go off and assert their independence in that way. My daughter's idea of independence is riding her bike in front of our house. My son's is going to the potty by himself.

Can you imagine this big man following a little girl down the street? Now that seems like a scary situation!

My father followed me on my paper delivery route when I was about fifteen. Incredibly irritating--as noted I'd been taking public transport in the third world five years earlier. I think I quit after a week because he wouldn't stop.

Emmett walked to aftercare from his school unaccompanied by an adult (but with his friends) starting in 3rd grade. But it was only a few blocks through housing for UC Berkeley graduate students. Very safe environment. Towards the end of 4th grade he stopped doing aftercare, was given a cell phone and we just picked him up where he told us to find him. He had keys to his Mom's house so he could let himself in, but mostly he was free to roam and I generally picked him up at one his friends' houses.

It was a conscious choice to let him have some of that freedom before he got into middle school where the aftercare options dry up. It helped that his Mom and I had freer schedules so that we could collect him right after school as well.

I still wouldn't turn him loose on BART or Muni by himself, but he's probably old enough to do that now. Some of his school friends are a couple stops away on BART and take it every day to school. The BART station is only a 5 minute walk from his school.