How old is old enough for two girls to wait in line for a roller coaster at a theme park by...

[ProtoLawyer]

Here's the scene:

Two girls, two years apart. Best friends for five years. City girls, the older of whom takes a city bus to school by herself.

They rode a roller coaster with their adult chaperones, who did not want to ride again, but the kids had a blast. They wanted to ride again and begged to go by themselves. They had a chaperone's cell phone number written on their admission bracelets. They are tall enough to ride without adults.

The line was about 20-30 minutes long, and parts of it were not visible from the "outside." Once you're in line, there's really only one way out, so the adults would just go wait by the exit. It would be pretty hard to wait and not ride, but it's probably technically possible (for people having second thoughts at the last second and such). It was 2 in the afternoon, when most of the people in line were kids/families, rather than the teenagers and young adults who visit later in the evening.

So...assuming they met the height requirements, how old is old enough for you to leave these two girls?

[Daffodil]

I'm picturing my 6 1/2 year old in this situation, and I think I would probably be okay with leaving her, though she's probably just barely old enough. (And in reality, I'm pretty sure she's not tall enough to ride alone on a roller coaster.) I'd be slightly worried that she might get bored or decide she needed to go to the bathroom or something, and wouldn't know how to get herself out of line. Or that she and her friend might start jumping around and acting silly and annoying other people in line. And of course I'd be worried that a park employee or other parent would feel she was too young to be alone and might call security or yell at me. That would probably be my main concern, and might actually prevent me from letting her do it. But I would probably feel it was safe for her to wait in line alone. If she were a couple of years older, I don't think I'd be concerned at all (except about what other people might think.)

I voted 6 and 8, because I doubt I would have felt comfortable letting my DD do this when she was younger than 6.

[AbbieB]

We have passes to Busch Gardens and DD will be 6 this month, so I know exactly what your worried about.

DD has just reached the hight to ride some of the more exciting adult rides (as opposed to kiddy rides). Up until recently there would have been no way I would have allowed her to go by herself. But my feelings were more about being with her if she changed her mind or got scared. Now that she is a fan of some of the rides and can clearly handle them, I let her have some freedom to wait in line without me.

I feel 100% safe about being in the park. I do not see any danger in DD waiting in a line by herself at all.

I do not let her wander alone outside of a small cluster of rides with a central waiting area. I do not send her to the restrooms alone. I think she needs to be a little older and "aware" before I will let her do that kind of stuff alone.

It sounds like the kids you are talking about have had more practice navigating by themselves so I see no reason to be worried.

FWIW I always see kids waiting in line with friends that make me think, "Are they even tall enough to go on this ride?" I've never observed any problems.

[lilyka]

I didn't read the post before voting or I would change my vote. Based on my kids I said 10 and 12 (although I would let the older one wait with either of her sisters the youngest of which is 6). After reading about the girls I would say 10 and the younger one. Clearly she is good at navigating her way around and knows about strangers etc.

[sapphire_chan]

Given the details you said, I'd let a 4 and 6 year old do it.

In general, though, probably starting around age 8 for the older child if both kids were 100% comfortable with the coaster.

[eclipse]

I said 6 and 8, as that's how old my older kids are and I would probably let them at this point, as long as it wasn't a really long line. I would probably even let my 6 year old wait by herself, if I thought she was willing to do it. I would not let my six year old and my four year old do it, though I probably would have let my older kids do it at that age (DD was a very mature 4 yo, and DS2 is a very immature 4 yo).

[feminist~mama]

I said 10 and 12. My dd is 10 and we just went to Disneyland. She went on a couple of rides by herself- although I think we could see her most of the time. I don't think I would have let her do that when she was younger- especially a 20-30 minute wait...

But with an older friend? Yeah, I'd have let her do it without worrying about it too much.

[eepster]

I went with 6 and 8, since that struck me as the ages when an average kid would be ready to handle the situation. However, there are probably kids out there ready to handle a situation like that at 4 and 6, but then again I'm sure there are also plenty of 16 and 18 yo who would still get themselves in trouble, be rude, act inappropriate, etc.

Every parent/chaperon needs to know the individual children in question, how they act together and make a judgement based on that.

[homeschoolingmama]

WOW! I am shocked at the young ages! My 6yo girl is a mature 6yo but in no way would I allow that. Nor would she want to. Maybe it is because we are from a small town but I am just so surprised. I can't give an age that I will be ok with it. I will have to wait and see.

[velochic]

I would be more worried about the roller coaster than the line. Dd is 7 and is 4 ft. tall, so can ride the biggest rides, but I still think she is too "small" for them. I think 10 years old at the earliest and being the protective parent I am, maybe 12.

[One_Girl]

I wouldn't let my dd stand in a line where I couldn't see her all alone, but I have always let her ride on the rides she is tall enough for all by herself because she likes them and I don't do rides.

[MCR]

I said 10 and 12. seeing they would not be in sight while in line.
We have let Ds and his friend (with parent permission) lose at the county fair with a cell phone while Dh and I took dd to see the animals and they were 13 or so.

[sapphire_chan]

Originally Posted by velochic

I would be more worried about the roller coaster than the line. Dd is 7 and is 4 ft. tall, so can ride the biggest rides, but I still think she is too "small" for them.

But the OP clearly stated that the kids had been on the coaster already.

[zebra15]

I voted 5-7, but if they are old enough to ride the coaster then they are old enough to stand in line, and since one of the kids is riding the city bus alone i'd say they are fine to be in line.

[Princess ConsuelaB]

Since I think it would be okay at 10 but not at 8(at least knowing my own kids) I couldn't choose '8 and 10' so I split the difference and voted 9 and 11.

[WC_hapamama]

Depends on the maturity level of the individual children, but I'd say 11-13 for the average kid.

My parents let my brother and I wander Disneyland unsupervised at about that age. We were just told when and where to meet them in a couple of hours.

I would definitely trust my 12 year old to wait in a line like that. He is relatively trustworthy and has a cell phone.

[the_lissa]

I voted 5 and 7.

[ProtoLawyer]

Thanks for the replies--
We did let my 7-year-old stepdaughter and her 9-year-old friend do it, and it came out just fine. (The nine-year-old's mom was fine with it, too, though she was not there.) It obviously depends in large part on the specific kids and circumstances.

We probably would not have allowed the reverse (if *our* kid had been the -year-old, and someone else's had been the younger) nor would we have allowed either to do the wait all alone. We also did not send them to the restroom unescorted (which meant I ended up going to the bathroom a lot). I also don't think we would have been willing to let them alone in a long line (2+ hours for some of the rides!) unless they'd had a cell phone on them, because we would not have wanted to just stand by the exit for an hour and a half (nor would we have been comfortable wandering and hoping we got back before they did). But 20 minutes wasn't a big deal. We got some coffee and camped out.

[LynnS6]

I put 6 and 8, because I can clearly see my 5 year old being comfortable doing this, and our 8 year old might be (though honestly, he's much more cautious, so I think he might not be).

Factors that I think make it OK:
1. You'd been on the ride with them, so you'd scoped out the place beforehand.
2. They were together.
3. They had a cell phone in case they changed their minds.

It all depends on the kids (are they trustworthy, impulsive?), and how comfortable you are in the place.

[rhiandmoi]

It depends on the type of ride. A ride with a 30 min line is probably a pretty intense ride with a lot of loud adults in the line, so I would say older tweens. But if it is a family ride with a lot of families and other tweens riding alone I would have no problem with 8 & 10. My family had amusement park passes growing up, and I don't think I waited in line alone until I was around 13, but my brother is 4 years younger and he would have been allowed in line with me at that time.