when you cross the street or when you are in the parking lot? I was just in the parking lot of a mall and a girl about 4years old ran out of the store into the mini road of the parking lot. I stopped because I didnt know what she would do.Her dad came out casually and then together they started to cross the "road" half way across the girl decided to run back to the otherside and then into the road a few times, a car from the opposit direction nearly hit her. But the dad still never held her hand, he kept yelling instructions at her. I would think that holding hands would be a given if the child is to young to cross the road by themselves.