Absolutely, I am with another poster on here from around 3 my children started to be given trust around roads.
By 6 they are walking home from school, and cross a main road via crossing guards. Then walk around a corner to home but it’s all neat busy school traffic.
They’ve been road savvy since 3 , with occasional lapses in judgement, but the fast lost the independence they value so it’s pretty easily corrected.

What is the world coming to? holding my kids hands as they cross the street! That's asking way too much. All i want to do all day is have my fat flabby arse on my lounge eating potato chips watching commercial tv.

Lol by 2/3 years old neither of my kids held my hand on roads. They didn’t want to so I made it clear what behaviour was expected and they proved themselves to be trustworthy and responsible.
My youngest was a bit more hard work to teach but now at 3 she has the road sense to not hold my hand

I agree with holding their hand across the road until 10

You may feel that way but children are children and no matter how well you teach them they do not have the impulse control and maturity required to look after themselves on the road at 8 years old. Children do make poor judgements in such environments because they are children, their brains won't be fully developed until their mid 20s!

My kids all rode bikes or scooters or walked to school from year 2. We were not that far from school like 1km and I started work 7am. That's just how it was. My youngest is 10 now, but if he needed to hold hands walking he'd have to catch the bus cos I start work 6 now so I guess we're both lucky lol. But I guess there loads of kids out there with zero road sense that need to be physically guided across the road.
How are kids supposed to ride around the block or go play down at the park around the corner if they need to be highly supervised. They need to learn positive risk taking and independence too, but they also need to be safe.

I have always held my kids hands when crossing busy roads, just last week I grabbed my sons hand and he is 14, just instinct I suppose. Nothing wrong with mummys love.

The problem is some children mature faster than others. I have a very mature, smart, switched on 9 year old who is very capable of crossing a road by himself.
However my almost 8 year old (18 months between the two), is so "young" for his age. He's the kind of kid that will blindly step out in front of cars in a car park.
And of course people don't use common sense anymore, so they put out a blanket rule to cover all those immature children.
Well that's my theory anyway...

Really? Keeping kids safe has you this irate? If It saves just one child's life then it's worth it. Woman, have a bloody word with yourself.

Are you meaning if they are with you, or that they can cross a road by themselves? I agree that an 8 year old probably doesn't need to hold your hand if you are with them- they simply follow what you do. But I wouldn't think most 8 year olds would have good enough road sense to cross by themselves, especially if there is no pedestrian crossing. Mind you, my eldest is only 3, so haven't got any experience with kids that age yet.

Yeah, i saw the ads too last night and tbough WTF?? My kids and all the neighborhood kids walk and ride to eachothers houses all the time, if 8 usually with a slightly older sibling but we all live close and parents cinstantly texting 'hane is here' or 'bob is headed to yours' usually there's a bunch of them together. I have bigger issues with high school kids - running in front of cars, not checking for turning traffic and just walking across the road, walking in front of cars moving forward, riding bikes down the middle of the road. I have a high school kid and a primary school kid, schools are side by side, high school kids definitely the worst!! Don't know if they are stupid or just arrogent! The ones that drive are even worse! Don't give way or let people in, speed, do burnouts, tailgate etc