You're not old fashioned at all. It is only recently that it was considered unsafe for children to go out alone, before - say - 1970, children of five or six played in the street and did short errands for parents. And anyone who knows anything about children will tell you that most children, when given responsibility and treated with respect, are amazing in a crisis. I'm pleasantly surprised to read such a positive report on this generally mysoginist blog. Why on earth would the child NOT help, for goodness sake ? A rare chance to be useful and treated with respect by adults who normally look at her and think "nuisance"