Shit man, I'm WAY more scared of my kids running out into traffic. My 8 year old son is completely oblivious to the world around him. Just this morning he chased a tennis ball right into the middle of a three-way intersection without even looking.

My daughter is much better (at 7). Kids are all crazy.

> A two year old could easily run out into traffic. A 7 or 8 year old, not so much.

You overestimate 7 & 8 year olds. I know I definitely did. Ran into the side of a moving car.

I used to walk to school all by myself when I was 7 - I had to lock the door behind me, cross two roads to get to school, come back, let myself in, and have a fruit or a sandwich while I waited for my parents to come back. That was in 1998. Everyone walked to school - maybe one kid got dropped off by his parents but he was from a "rich" family and no one liked him because of it.

Same here. When I was 7 I had a half hour walk to/from school. Many of my class mates had similar distances to walk. We we walked along busy roads, and some had to cross them. We'd also be home alone for hours afterwards.

At one point my parents got worried that maybe it was to much, and got me a child minder. I proceeded to boycott her by dropping my school bag, leaving to play outside and not coming back until my parents would be there to pick me up - after a couple of weeks of that they decided it was pointless and let me be at home by myself again instead.

I saw this happen to a kid probably 20 years ago, and it still makes me laugh. Sorry :)

To the bigger point, even a supervising parent is not going to be able to prevent a lot of these "kids do dumb things" examples.

Could it have been because you didn't run into a moving car when you were two?