When did you let your kids roam the parks alone?

This may sound weird, but our boys never asked to go off on their own at DL. We all enjoy hanging out together. Now that they're 18 and 22, they can obviously go off anywhere they'd like. But we still generally stay together, except for a few times when we split up into pairs or one of us chooses to sit out a ride.
 
This may sound weird, but our boys never asked to go off on their own at DL. We all enjoy hanging out together. Now that they're 18 and 22, they can obviously go off anywhere they'd like. But we still generally stay together, except for a few times when we split up into pairs or one of us chooses to sit out a ride.
For our situation, we are there a lot. We meet up with friends, and usually the kids like to ride while the adults chat. When my kids were younger, the older kids would go ride together, while I took the youngest to parades and shows. It wasn't the whole trip, but more like a couple hours a day.

And I get it, because these same kids still go with me, even though they are 27-31yo and have kids....DD30 and I are getting ready to head down again this coming weekend.
 
The kids (ages last time in Disney were 14, 12, 10 and 7) go in pairs to pull FP but have never asked to go on their own while at Disney. To be honest I would be a little sad as we go to spend time as a family. Guess we will see if they ask when we head back in March!

Like others have said it really depends on your child and your own comfort level.
 
This may sound weird, but our boys never asked to go off on their own at DL. We all enjoy hanging out together. Now that they're 18 and 22, they can obviously go off anywhere they'd like. But we still generally stay together, except for a few times when we split up into pairs or one of us chooses to sit out a ride.

See, this is kind of where I am. My daughter is approaching that age where I should probably start thinking about it, but more often than not, it's just she and I on a special "daddy/daughter Disneyland trip." We genuinely enjoy hanging out together at the parks. I'll be sad when that day comes to let her fly on her own for a bit.
 


I still don't let my son roam Disneyland or any place alone. He is 10 and will be 11 in November, but while he might be ready at Disneyland, he won't do it. He gets bored when alone and will probably waste his phone battery by sitting somewhere and playing. His younger brother isn't even 2 yet, so no buddy for him to roam with. I am glad he hasn't asked, because I wouldn't let him. Yes, he uses the men's restroom....but other than that, nope. Stores are worse as someone said multiple exits..I would probably feel more comfortable when he is 13 and with him having a buddy.

My sister is different she lets her kids 14 and 12 be at magic mountain by themselves. It really does vary...
 
Our last trip we let our older boys (14, 11) go off together for short periods of time while we took the younger boys (3, 1) on things like Small World.

My boys are pretty mature for their ages, but I wouldn't have let my 11 year old go off by himself. We are from a tiny little town, so we aren't used to all of the people, and he is shy.

I admit to being a bit ridiculous about it, though, because I was still concerned about them being gone... even though my 14 year old is 5'10", 175 lbs, and 2nd in our state in wrestling. I am more likely to get kidnapped than he is.
 
I still don't let my son roam Disneyland or any place alone. He is 10 and will be 11 in November, but while he might be ready at Disneyland, he won't do it. He gets bored when alone and will probably waste his phone battery by sitting somewhere and playing. His younger brother isn't even 2 yet, so no buddy for him to roam with. I am glad he hasn't asked, because I wouldn't let him. Yes, he uses the men's restroom....but other than that, nope. Stores are worse as someone said multiple exits..I would probably feel more comfortable when he is 13 and with him having a buddy.

My sister is different she lets her kids 14 and 12 be at magic mountain by themselves. It really does vary...

Our last trip we let our older boys (14, 11) go off together for short periods of time while we took the younger boys (3, 1) on things like Small World.

My boys are pretty mature for their ages, but I wouldn't have let my 11 year old go off by himself. We are from a tiny little town, so we aren't used to all of the people, and he is shy.

I admit to being a bit ridiculous about it, though, because I was still concerned about them being gone... even though my 14 year old is 5'10", 175 lbs, and 2nd in our state in wrestling. I am more likely to get kidnapped than he is.
For me, I wouldn't have allowed the kids to go alone until they were closer to 15. AT 10/11 they were always in at least pairs, if not 3 of them. And I was always in the park. Now with the teens, they always have cell phones, we have Stalk my Friends, and again we are in the park. On the rare occasion we are out of the park, it is a case of having gone to the DLH and we have an adult meet them at the Monorail exit.
 


May I just say, I love how reasonable this thread has been. :sunny: I live in a resort town at the shore in NJ, and my kids roam freely, because they know the lay of the land. My kids are well aware at home that "weirdos" go on vacation, but they also know what's what better than the weirdos, (and visitors) so it helps level the playing field.

At DL and WDW, we are more a "stick together as a team" family, so I relate to pretty much what everyone in this thread has said! I wouldn't be comfortable with them yet going off on their own (at 13 and 10) just because I don't think their Spidey Sense would be as good in a place where they are the visitors.
 
My DD is 10, and my son is 18 (but has special needs). I lost them at Disneyland a couple of weeks ago. Had to get security involved, was during the MSEP, was a big to do. My DD was scared, crying, my DS handled it like a champ. We reunited due to some very aware and efficient cast members (in the dark mind you). That was our first visit to DL, and now we can get a little bit of a chuckle out of it. But...neither are ready to be off on their own yet!
 
All of our recent trips to amusement parks have been overseas in countries where my kids don't speak the language so we haven't let them venture too far, they are always with an adult. Though we tend to pair my 13 year old with my Mother in law when she is traveling with us because 13 year old is pretty street smart and Mother in law doesn't have a great sense of direction and is more likely to get lost. Last year while we were in Hong Kong my 13 year old and 11 year old got separated from the rest of the group while boarding the metro. Thankfully 13 year old knew what stop to get off at and just sent us a text that she would get off at that stop and wait for the rest of us to catch up.
Back on topic... I would be comfortable with my 13 year old breaking off from the group now, as long as she was with a similarly aged cousin (or perhaps her brother that is now close to 12) if they were somewhere they were familiar and they had a way of communicating with us and we had a time set up to meet up after a couple of hours, etc... I do let her go with friends to the movies or the mall or on their own for short periods of time at the local water park and I view amusement parks, including Disney, as the same.

It does depend on the kid(s) though. My son is only 18 months younger than his sister but he is in no way ready to be off on his own unless he is with his sister or another mature kid. He is very well behaved, a rule follower by nature BUT he is likely to panic in an unknown situation. Case in point, the above HK metro story. While his sister was cool, calm and collected, he had a look of panic on his face while the train zoomed by with him on it (and us standing on the platform!) and dd informed me later he was teary and worried until she calmed him down. He just doesn't have that maturity needed yet.
 
After reading the 2 above posts, one things kids need to understand when they aren't with adults is the ride they are on can break down, and they need to understand to just follow instructions from the cast members. If 2 are together, they need to understand THEY need to make a meet up spot should something go wrong. Example, my daughters (who were adults) rode Matterhorn single rider. Due to a family argument (the family couldn't figure out who was going to sit where) the ride E-stopped. One daughter was nearly at the end, while the other one was on the backside over Pixie Hollow. It took 45 mins to get her off. They need to know what to do in this case, and to NOT just go alone to do whatever....
 

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