My 7 year old walks home from school and I get a ton of grieve~ Other mothers insight please?

I think your mom is just worried, you can teach your daughter all the safety tips in the world, but it won't help her if someone grabs her and puts her in their car. But the odds of that happening are little. I do NOT think you are irresponsible at all, I think you are doing the best you can as a single mom, you can not be in 2 places at once. When my son was in 2nd grade, he would walk to school everyday with his friends, and it made him feel like a "big boy".

The problem doesn't lie in her not being mature enough to do this, the problem is the other sickos in this world that could drive up and pull her in their car. Kidnappers are everywhere. As a teacher and mother I would say that 7 is way too young for even just two blocks. You are the best person to make this call though. If your neighborhood is very safe and the school is at the edge or in the middle of your neighborhood it is a little safer. I personally don't think I would let any child under 10 or 12 walk home from school. 30 years ago it would have been fine but in today's society I would hesitate.

Is there another mom that you can ask to walk her home? Maybe someone else picking up their child as well? We lived in a neighborhood where most of the kids walked to/from school. Every year- usually in the fall and spring there was some creeps out there driving really slow and there had even been a few incidents of the person trying to get a kid in their car. It's good she knows the stranger rules, but does she know what to do if someone grabs her? Or if someone runs after her? I mean, this stuff happens. Just watch the news. I know you're in a bind, but you need to be really careful here.

You get home a few minutes before her, so certainly you can swing over to the school and pick her up. However, I don't know how long she is waiting outside for you and at our school, they can only wait for like 5-10 minutes before they are told to go to the office.

My daughter is in 2nd grade, smart, polite and well put together, and although we live a bit farther from school, I would never let her walk home alone period.

I would have her wait at the school.There's been to many kids disappear on the news.Most don't come back alive.Who knows what else had been done to them.I am a grand mother to a 7 year old smart little girl in second grade.Unless there is some older kids to walk with your daughter I would not let her walk alone.I probably wouldn't let her even with the older kids.It would only take a minute for someone to take her and then you wouldn't have that precious little girl anymore.Once it happens you can't turn back time.I know it's hard for you but it would be harder it if something happens to your daughter.You would have to live with that the rest of your life.

What I know the kids do around my house is they have a buddy system. where two or 3 kids always walk home together. Never alone. And since they all live in the neighborhood it works out great. My sisters daughter goes to her Buddy's' house until she can pick her up a little later. I think something like that would be the best.

Kids can walk home, they also just need to be more informed.

You have to talk to the school, there is something else going on. Perhaps he enjoys the attention being naughty gets? Kids do it sometimes to impress others too. Could it be a defence mechanism? I was told by a teacher before to not punish my child at home for what they have done at school. I brought in a reward chart for my son when he was the same age. Get him to help you make it. I tell him that good behaviour is rewarded. We have had a $5 chart where he got an amount of stickers then he would be rewarded with $5. Some may say its bribery, but it worked at the time & now everything at school is fine & we do not have the reward chart or system.

It's hard to say what is right b/c things are so much different these days than when we were kids. I walked home from kindergarten with all of the neighbor kids! I have a 2nd grader and wouldn't let her walk home alone at this point despite her maturity. It's not her I worry about, it's all the other lunatics that could do something horrible.

It's not so much if your daughter is a good kid or not. It's all those other psychos out there that can just pick up little kids and you never see them again if you live that close to the school and you get home just minutes before her then I would just go pick her up at school she wouldn't be waiting that long and she would have someone who knows where she is all the time. If it was up to me I wouldn't let her walk even if she can handle it. I would just be worried that she would be abducted and from there who knows what else.

2 blocks is not far. Depends on where you live I guess. I know things can happen anywhere, but where I live you never hear of anything bad happening. I walked home from school in first grade and I can tell you it was way more than 2 blocks. My son is 5 and not allowed to play out front of our house alone, but when I am out in the yard I let him go the length of our block on the sidewalk. We live 7 blocks from his school and I think he will be walking when he is in 3rd grade. His school does not allow them to stay after. Also, the exercise is good for kids. I think a 7 year old can handle two blocks, you can see further than that if you wanted to watch her from home.