Back in medieval times when I was growing up there were some rules we had to abide by but other than that we were on our own playing outside during daylight hours. I used to ride for miles on my horse when I was just four. Later when I was eight and we lived in the city, I would take the city bus by myself to go visit my aunts or grandmother or to the dentist.
The rules were these:
1. You did not touch the guns. Period. Ever. Guns were never locked up and I learned to leave them alone by the time I could walk. I did have cap guns but i and every other kid I knew could tell the difference between a cap gun and the real thing.
2. You did not play with matches.
3. You did not tease animals. If you got kicked, bitten, or trompled there was no sympathy. You shouldn't have been where, or doing whatever, so you could have gotten kicked, bitten, or trompled in the first pace.
I don't know what we thought would happen to us if we broke any of these rules, but we never did. I never occurred to us to do so.
