Notes for the early years
The bit between the pushchair and the first phone.
Small children become slightly larger children who want to go places on their own. This site is about that stretch — the first solo walk, the first phone, the first day out where you are not holding a hand.
We write about the ordinary decisions rather than worst-case scenarios. How do you know your child is ready to cross a road without you? What actually needs to be set up on a phone before you hand it over? What do you agree beforehand so a busy museum does not end in a panic?
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Walking to school alone
How to tell if they are ready, how to practise the route, and what to agree before the first solo morning.
Read the guide -
The first phone checklist
Everything to set up before you hand it over — and the conversation that matters more than the settings.
Read the checklist -
Days out without losing each other
A simple plan for zoos, museums, markets and festivals that works whether or not anyone has a phone.
Read the plan
Who writes this
GoBabyApp is published by the team behind Geopapa, a family locator app for parents. That is a commercial interest, and you should read these pages knowing it. What we try not to do is pretend that an app solves a parenting question. Most of what follows is about agreements, practice and timing; the app turns up only where it actually does something, and we say plainly where it does not.
A different site — a London family blog called GoBaby — used to be at this address until 2018. We bought the domain afterwards. None of its writing is here and none of ours is theirs. More about that, and about us.
Road safety, school travel policy and the legal position on leaving children unsupervised differ by country and by local authority. Check what your school and council say, and treat these notes as one parent's working list rather than a rule.