I am reading all this and wondering how I - and my whole generation of peers - survived. I was walking to school (~15 mins on foot) alone (well, sometimes with my class mates) since I was 7. Playing outside without parental supervision (well, when not reading books, on which to be honest I spent a lot of time, being a geek) since about the same age. Going to relatives on public transport (~20 min) since about the same age. Going to high school on public transport (~1hr one way) since about 13. In fact, most of the day I didn't see my parents and they didn't see me - they were at work and I have been at school, or at the relative's or at home mostly tending to myself, doing chores, or homework, or reading books. Literally everybody my age was the same. I don't remember anybody having stay-at-home parents or somebody supervising non-toddler child the whole day. This probably sounds as insane to some Americans as the American idea that school age kids need constant adult supervision sounds to me. But from what I read in the literature it used to be this way in the US too. Just somehow people got super-paranoid one day...