She devil or supermum?

[Briant]

There was a bit on BBC breakfast news today about a mum who let her 9 year old son take a 20 minute walk home from school every day.

The lad was obvioulsy happy with the arrangement and started to pester his mum to take him to a place he didn't know a bit further away and let him find his own way home. After several times of asking the mum did what the boy wanted and left him in an unfamiliar place with 20 dollars and left him to find his own way home.

Stopping to ask directions twice he got the subway for 3 stops then a bus home.

When the mum wrote about it she was vilified. People started saying she was a terrible mum and "what if...................". It was news headlines for a bit with most people against the mum.


Personally I think she has done her son a great service. He will have a confidence that few kids his age will and the experience will do him good.

Any thoughts?

Sorry, can't find a link.

[Colr]

I used to walk to and from school without my mum from primary 1.

[Briant]

Originally Posted by Colr

I used to walk to and from school without my mum from primary 1.

Me too from day two.

[SG7nil]

Me three..

I think that most bouncers over a certain age will all attest to the same story... It was bloody unusual to see anyone dropped off at primary school when I was there.

I walked up and back, about 15 mins each way (and used to run home at lunchtime and back again until about primary 3 - when my ma got a job and I started school dinners). Once she was working I had a set of keys on a string round my neck so I could get in when I got home.

In the summer holidays we had to make our own lunches too, usually something like tinned hamburgers in gravy (do these things still exist?).....

Was the world really such a different place back then?

P.S. Im 47 btw (today in fact!)

[Briant]

Originally Posted by SG7nil

Me three..

I think that most bouncers over a certain age will all attest to the same story... It was bloody unusual to see anyone dropped off at primary school when I was there.

I walked up and back, about 15 mins each way (and used to run home at lunchtime and back again until about primary 3 - when my ma got a job and I started school dinners). Once she was working I had a set of keys on a string round my neck so I could get in when I got home.

In the summer holidays we had to make our own lunches too, usually something like tinned hamburgers in gravy (do these things still exist?).....

Was the world really such a different place back then?

P.S. Im 47 btw (today in fact!) :woohoo2::Elephant:

Happy Birthday to the resident pedant


Have a good one

[madkink]

Originally Posted by Briant

There was a bit on BBC breakfast news today about a mum who let her 9 year old son take a 20 minute walk home from school every day.

The lad was obvioulsy happy with the arrangement and started to pester his mum to take him to a place he didn't know a bit further away and let him find his own way home. After several times of asking the mum did what the boy wanted and left him in an unfamiliar place with 20 dollars and left him to find his own way home.

Stopping to ask directions twice he got the subway for 3 stops then a bus home.

When the mum wrote about it she was vilified. People started saying she was a terrible mum and "what if...................". It was news headlines for a bit with most people against the mum.


Personally I think she has done her son a great service. He will have a confidence that few kids his age will and the experience will do him good.

Any thoughts?

Sorry, can't find a link.

Originally Posted by SG7nil

Me three..

I think that most bouncers over a certain age will all attest to the same story... It was bloody unusual to see anyone dropped off at primary school when I was there.

I walked up and back, about 15 mins each way (and used to run home at lunchtime and back again until about primary 3 - when my ma got a job and I started school dinners). Once she was working I had a set of keys on a string round my neck so I could get in when I got home.

In the summer holidays we had to make our own lunches too, usually something like tinned hamburgers in gravy (do these things still exist?).....

Was the world really such a different place back then?

P.S. Im 47 btw (today in fact!) :woohoo2::Elephant:

I used to walk about all the time when i was younger, but we live in a cotton wool world when it comes to kids, and sometimes not without good cause, but i think sometimes it is a little to much,

This kid will be independent and probably have the right kind off street smarts compaired to kids who only know where the local off licence and chippies are

AND

SG7nil

[Colr]

Originally Posted by madkink

I used to walk about all the time when i was younger, but we live in a cotton wool world when it comes to kids, and sometimes not without good cause, but i think sometimes it is a little to much,

This kid will be independent and probably have the right kind off street smarts compaired to kids who only know where the local off licence and chippies are

AND

happybirthday SG7nil

That said, I'd be nervous of letting my wee lad walk to school in London. Traffic in London today is miles worse than Rural Yorkshire or Suburban Edinburgh the early 70s.

[Stirlinghibee]

Originally Posted by SG7nil

Me three..

I think that most bouncers over a certain age will all attest to the same story... It was bloody unusual to see anyone dropped off at primary school when I was there.

I walked up and back, about 15 mins each way (and used to run home at lunchtime and back again until about primary 3 - when my ma got a job and I started school dinners). Once she was working I had a set of keys on a string round my neck so I could get in when I got home.

In the summer holidays we had to make our own lunches too, usually something like tinned hamburgers in gravy (do these things still exist?).....

Was the world really such a different place back then?

P.S. Im 47 btw (today in fact!) :woohoo2::Elephant:

I walked from P2 onwards I think, over two main roads as well! GASP!!



TV reporting on the ikes of the cases of Robert Black and Peter Tobin make Mum's completely paranoid.

oh..

[PILTONSTANY]

I always walked to school myself too,I honestly think that if wasn't for the media today that most folk would be happy letting their kids have much more freedom.

Crimes against kids are no higher now than they ever were,they're just reported on more........

Oh aye Hibby birthday

[madkink]

Originally Posted by Colr

That said, I'd be nervous of letting my wee lad walk to school in London. Traffic in London today is miles worse than Rural Yorkshire or Suburban Edinburgh the early 70s.

hence the reason it is sometimes with good cause, but that isn't the fear off most people, infact ask most and i'm sure there biggest fear would be there kid getting abducted, which is a good fear to have, but kids have to be taught how to stay safe in these situations, and that is where the failing is,

I was sent to martial arts when i was a kid, and i was taught what to do in certain situations, nowadays you don't hear off it so much

[southfieldhibby]

My daughter who's just turned 9 walks to school with her 2 cousins everyday on their todd...and have done for a couple of years.They walk about a mile and not once have they had any bother.

[Rajazemmama2008]

Originally Posted by madkink

hence the reason it is sometimes with good cause, but that isn't the fear off most people, infact ask most and i'm sure there biggest fear would be there kid getting abducted, which is a good fear to have, but kids have to be taught how to stay safe in these situations, and that is where the failing is,

I was sent to martial arts when i was a kid, and i was taught what to do in certain situations, nowadays you don't hear off it so much

Child abductions are becoming rare, and only people like under 10..

if you tried to abduct a 10yr old in bits of edinburgh or say london, they would pull a knife on you and steal your watch, wallet and van

[Stu]

Another here that was walking it alone to Primary after the first day. Times were different then though so I'm not sure it's a useful comparison.

I do think the mother is in the right. Kids need to learn to stand on their own two feet and be self-relient and independent wherever is possible.

[Dub]

I dont think she is a bad mother at all. Before I moved to Broomhouse I stayed in Temple Park Crescent and went to Craiglockhart Primary School. Me and my mate Billy Thomson [it was his dad that introduced me to Hibs because my dad - a yam - couldnt be arsed taking me to any games, thank fukk] we neveer got into any bother, maybe fell in the canal a few times, ripped holes in knees climbing trees instead of going straight home or stuff like that, but never anyone approaching us or anything like that. Billy must have been an ugly child.

As Piltonstany says, I think most of the increaase in crimes against kids is because they are now reported more and not because there actually are more. I have bugger all to back that statement up btw.

So again, no, I dont think she is a bad mother at all. Taking a wee chance the same as all our mums did when we were little but thats all.

[madkink]

Originally Posted by Rajazemmama2008

Child abductions are becoming rare, and only people like under 10..

if you tried to abduct a 10yr old in bits of edinburgh or say london, they would pull a knife on you and steal your watch, wallet and van

Your right on the abductions, they are becomeing rare, but probably for most parents still there biggest fear,

And you are more than likely right on the bold part

[Zitelli`s Heid!]

Originally Posted by SG7nil

Me three..

I think that most bouncers over a certain age will all attest to the same story... It was bloody unusual to see anyone dropped off at primary school when I was there.

I walked up and back, about 15 mins each way (and used to run home at lunchtime and back again until about primary 3 - when my ma got a job and I started school dinners). Once she was working I had a set of keys on a string round my neck so I could get in when I got home.

In the summer holidays we had to make our own lunches too, usually something like tinned hamburgers in gravy (do these things still exist?).....

Was the world really such a different place back then?

P.S. Im 47 btw (today in fact!) :woohoo2::Elephant:

Aye, "Goblin" hamburgers, my story is an identikit of yours. Happy Burfday.

[Louis Prima]

Originally Posted by Colr

I used to walk to and from school without my mum from primary 1.

Originally Posted by Briant

Me too from day two.

Originally Posted by SG7nil

Me three..

I think that most bouncers over a certain age will all attest to the same story... It was bloody unusual to see anyone dropped off at primary school when I was there.

I walked up and back, about 15 mins each way (and used to run home at lunchtime and back again until about primary 3 - when my ma got a job and I started school dinners). Once she was working I had a set of keys on a string round my neck so I could get in when I got home.

In the summer holidays we had to make our own lunches too, usually something like tinned hamburgers in gravy (do these things still exist?).....

Was the world really such a different place back then?

P.S. Im 47 btw (today in fact!) :woohoo2::Elephant:

Originally Posted by Stirlinghibee

I walked from P2 onwards I think, over two main roads as well! GASP!!



TV reporting on the ikes of the cases of Robert Black and Peter Tobin make Mum's completely paranoid.

oh..

Originally Posted by PILTONSTANY

I always walked to school myself too,I honestly think that if wasn't for the media today that most folk would be happy letting their kids have much more freedom.

Crimes against kids are no higher now than they ever were,they're just reported on more........

Oh aye Hibby birthday

Right then first things first

Happy Birthday SG


So you feckers think you had it rough. Eh? eh,eh,eh,eh,eh. Well let me tell you something. I had to get up 5 hours before I went to bed to cross 44 main roads a motorway and swim through a canal which was infested by man eating pike and baggy minnows. I had to do a paper round , a milk round and a window cleaning round. When I eventually got to school I got battered round the heed with a 4x2 with a nail sticking oot the end. It got worse when I left nursery

By the way SG (Resident Pedant) I believe the tasty meat dish you are referring to may well be Goblin Beefburgers in gravy

I thank you

[hibs1986]

My daughter, who is 10, has been getting herself to school and back since she was 9. To be honest, don't know how confident I'd feel in New York, but I'm a bit puzzled by the demonisation of the woman

(I would say, though, that the traffic thing stresses me out a bit. I was trying to teach her about safe places to cross the road when she started travelling by herself, and we fairly quickly established that there were none - either where we live, or at school. And drivers' - PARENTS!!!! - parking and driving behaviour outside schools verges on the pathological.

Like many of you, I walked to school from day 1, but traffic was thin on the ground, and certainly not double parked outside school gates.)

P.S. Happy Birthday

[Colr]

Originally Posted by madkink

hence the reason it is sometimes with good cause, but that isn't the fear off most people, infact ask most and i'm sure there biggest fear would be there kid getting abducted, which is a good fear to have, but kids have to be taught how to stay safe in these situations, and that is where the failing is,

I was sent to martial arts when i was a kid, and i was taught what to do in certain situations, nowadays you don't hear off it so much

yeh, it was dodgy buggers in cars offering sweets and a ride home that we were warned about then (it reportedly happened outside Currie High once when I was there - nobody abducted, I'm relieved to say). Its more the internet now.

Don't ta