> At that age, they are going through streets alone when they go to scool or club or visit friends.
In the united states, this stopped being socially acceptable sometime time in the past 20 years. Letting your kids walk to school before high-school (13/14) is considered child abuse by many. Not everywhere, not everyone. But there has been a huge shift in views around what kind of out-of-the-home-unsupervised activity is seen as normal.
In Switzerland 5 years old walk unsupervised. Literally. Every August/September there is big campaign for drivers "be careful inexperienced kids on the roads" with billboards and what not. That is it.
It might be other extreme. But it does seem to me that if you are not letting them navigate world until 13, you are probably harming their development.
Is that true? In Germany in most cities children walk to school alone when they start elementary school at 6 years old. They are only accompanied by the parents for the first few weeks when they start school.
Unfortunately, disastrously, it is more or less true, yeah.
Here's a recent episode of the podcast 99% Invisible, about the Japanese TV show about toddlers running their "first errand" alone (which has become popular in the USA via netflix, perhaps because it seems so wild in the US?), and comparing US (and apparently Canadian) physical landscapes for children. https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/first-errand/
The episode touches on the fact that in Japan dropping off your children to school by car is generally prohibited, with a principal explaining why. I have heard this is true in Germany. It is definitely not true in the USA -- and the US physical and social landscape has been built in such a way it would be largely impossible. It's a disaster.
In the united states, this stopped being socially acceptable sometime time in the past 20 years. Letting your kids walk to school before high-school (13/14) is considered child abuse by many. Not everywhere, not everyone. But there has been a huge shift in views around what kind of out-of-the-home-unsupervised activity is seen as normal.