Do you let your kids walk to school?

Here in Paris not many families own a car, so driving our kids to our local school is not really an option, especially as the traffic is so very bad. We mostly walk, and kids start walking on their own to school from about 8 or 9. My eldest daughter Coco started at 8 as we were only living a 5-minute walk from school. I would follow a couple of minutes later as I was still dropping off her little sister, but that need for independence was very important to her and something I was very happy to encourage. (BTW it was very easy to retrace her steps as she would leave in her wake a steady flow of items, from one glove to a second glove, to a scarf and finally a pencil case that must have fallen out of her bag). As Coco is now 11 and in secondary school she is taking the metro on her own, changing stops and galavanting around Paris. She sometimes gets lost, but she normally finds her way home.

We now have a 15-minute walk to school and my now 9-year-old is embarking on the journey on her own and meeting up with a friend on the way. I love the fact that it is actually me who feels like I am missing out as I would normally go and meet up with my friends in a café after we had all dropped our kids off at school!

Have you seen the documentary On The Way To School yet? It is amazing; it really puts our little 15-minute stroll into perspective.

I’m interested how it works in other cities. Do you let your kids walk to school on their own?

Emilie

PS. The photo above was taken on the first day back to school, last Monday. That day I felt like I deserved a coffee with my friends and would accompany my daughter whether she liked it or not. I think she did not mind too much. ; )

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