The generational shift in commuting habits highlights a catch-22 common to what is sometimes criticised as “helicopter parenting”. If kids are constantly chaperoned they don’t get the opportunity to practise safe behaviours independently.
“We need to be aware children may not have road-safety skills and awareness, increasing the risk of an accident occurring in a school zone,” AAMI motor claims executive manager Luisa Rose said.
Ashgrove mum Clarissa Ellemor has two kids enrolled at Oakleigh State School and allows them to walk to school independently as they live very close by. A poll has found only 35 per cent of Queensland parents do this.Credit: Nick Dent
“When our kids are ready and we hold them back, we hold them back from building their own sense of bravery,” parenting expert Maggie Dent said on this topic on her Instagram feed.
Dent suggested parents walk the safest path to school with their child to get them familiar with it, and ease into parent-free travel by allowing it one afternoon a week.
Ashgrove mum Clarissa Ellemor is one of the trusting 35 per cent, allowing her kids Florence, 11, and August, 8, to walk to and from school independently.
Ellemor said it might be a different case if they did not live so close to their school, Oakleigh State School.
Loading
“If they had to cross the main road I would be a bit nervous,” Ellemor said.
“Wardell Street has massive trucks and the truck is supposed to stop at the lights, but that doesn’t mean they’re always going to stop.”
Ellemor said she previously had volunteered with the school’s Active School Travel program, provided by Brisbane City Council with the aim of increasing road safety awareness and reducing school traffic congestion.
“We’d have ‘walking buses’, where we as adults would meet a group of kids in a certain location and walk them to school,” she said.
“I think back to when I was going to school, it was more free-range. People were [travelling] to school totally independent of their parents.
“But it’s within reason, there’s more cars on the road 1737957694, it’s busier.”
Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
Read the full article here
