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I believe my parents were letting me roam the immediate neighborhood on a kid's bicycle (<1km), alone, at around age 6? And in any case I was completely unsupervised during the entire afternoon and early evening, I could have gone anywhere. I was allowed to go swimming in a lake with another kid at age 8 or so. Wasn't prevented from buying fireworks either, though I didn't have much cash unfortunately and due to stupid legislation, you could only work over age 15. Don't really see why children aged 8-12 can't stock shelves or work in warehouses etc. Given how much free time they have..
Pretty sure I was allowed to go anywhere around the city of ~300k by the time I was 9 or 10. Eastern Europe in early 90s.
I got caught shoplifting sweets at age 7. My parents weren't there, mind you. The shopkeeper told my dad and I got slapped so hard I hit the wall. It did work, I haven't shoplifted since though I did 'steal' food that was destined for trash for whatever reason when I worked in grocery stores later. Not sure if that counts, I never damaged anything so it could be thrown out.
Tbh, I believe when it comes to child-rearing, the communist era was much better than the present one. Maybe kids of really aggressive people got physically abused more, as it was rather common for small children getting hit with the belt when they deserved it, but I'm not sure that outweighed the salutary effects on the rest of the children. I got corporal punishment a few times, maybe less than a dozen, but it was always justified as far as I can remember.
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