In Japan there’s a tradition of having kids, at around 3 years old, go out by themselves to run errands. There’s a whole tv show about it.
If you are curious about other cultures as well, there’s a pretty good documentary on Apple tv about the first 5 years of life of kids from all around the world, including kids in rural areas, big cities and even small remote tribes.
Regarding the setting, there are some places (like some resorts or big estates), where young kids can be very safe and that allows them to be on their own a lot and build their independence.
The children on this TV show go along preplanned routes that are vetted by the show and are of course secretly supervised by the tv crews. 3 year olds are not routinely running errands in japan.
Young children do do things at a much younger age independently in japan than america, but it's not like the show.
edit: not to imply the show is fake or anything. It's just a special situation the show is filming.
As carefully supervised as those kids are, it has made me realize how much more capable children that age are than I gave them credit for. I'm still not sure I'd have done as well when I was that little. I was walking myself to/from primary school at least.
This is very much a cultural and setting thing.
In Japan there’s a tradition of having kids, at around 3 years old, go out by themselves to run errands. There’s a whole tv show about it.
If you are curious about other cultures as well, there’s a pretty good documentary on Apple tv about the first 5 years of life of kids from all around the world, including kids in rural areas, big cities and even small remote tribes.
Regarding the setting, there are some places (like some resorts or big estates), where young kids can be very safe and that allows them to be on their own a lot and build their independence.