We live around the block from the school with one road to cross. DS keeps asking to walk alone and I have told him a definite no, not just because of his very young age but the road that needs to be crossed is so busy during school drop off times that I worry that he would get hit. The amount of illegal parking that occurs because people just don't want to walk that extra minute or two astounds me. How do they expect to see their own or other peoples children like that? Not to mention the number of parents who cross their children in the middle of a busy road (different road to the one DS needs to cross) rather than using the children's crossing not even 10 metres away! Its there for a reason, yet it seems that parents choose to cross in the middle of the street dodging traffic rather than walk those few extra steps and wait for the guard to stop the traffic. Why is this? Why do we have her when she is so under utilised?

So after that rant, in answer to your question, I don't really know. As kids walking the same route we walked with my grandma until I was in year one? so my sister would have been around 9 and we walked together alone. I don't know why my parents and grandparents trusted her as I remember almost getting squished a number of times (no crossing guard in those days).