Should a 5 year old be allowed to play outside unsupervised?

My son is now 5 and he is allowed outside alone, but:

• He will not leave our garden. He knows where he is allowed to go and where not and he will ask if he wants to go anywhere else.
• He will not take any gardening tools unless allowed and he will not operate anything with electricity. and there are no dangers in our garden (such as a pool or pond where he could drown).
• He climbs trees, but when he does, he wants asks to come and watch.
• We removed all poisonous plants from our garden.

and

our place is quite rural. There are no more than 10 cars per day on the street in front of our house and they drive slowly. Any stranger walking by would cause the neighbors dog to bark and alert everyone.

I think it’s Okay if you can trust that the child sticks to some basic rules and if there are no obvious dangers anywhere. Kids need to have some opportunity for adventure. If you pack them up in cotton and have them safe and sound without a scratch, they will miss important childhood experiences.

I would not let a child venture off to places that are out of my reach until they are responsible and will be reliably home at a given time.

My 11 year old is allowed to go away with his friends. They build a tree house fort somewhere in a piece of forest that belongs to one of his friends’ grandfather. Sometimes he comes home with wet feet from crossing a creek. Sometimes he comes home with torn clothes from crawling through bushes. But he’s always home on time.

In general, that age…definitely not !

no.