Hellobee Boards

I shudder to think what those people would think of me. I purposefully made our back deck babyproof so that I could leave my 10 month old out there for a minute while I run to the bathroom or take the pizza out of the over or whatever. I'm never gone long, but he's perfectly fine.

I'm not there yet, but I'd say I'd probably let him play in the fenced backyard alone (checking in) by age 4ish, play out front around 5-6 and around the neighborhood by 7ish?

Hell, when I was 7-9 my best friend and I would spend time at her family farm. We'd pack a backpack with Capri Sun, Captn Crunch, Pringles and some apples and head out into the woods around the farm for hours. We played in the creek, made forts, brushed the horses, threw rocks, climbed hay bales. We just had to be home by sundown. And by 11, I was babysitting a 4 year old with ADHD and a 2 year old with autism!