OT: Times change

[Bill Wright]

Once a week I make a 42 mile round trip to collect a nine-year-old from school. During the evening his mother makes a 42 mile round trip to collect him from my house. He lives 75 yards from the school gates, but it's out of the question for him to walk home alone and be in the house by himself for twenty minutes until his 17 year-old sister gets in.

I greatly enjoy the boy's company. He is cheeky and clever and we love each other a lot. But I can't help reflecting that when I was his age and I also lived very close to school we all walked home alone right from Day Two of our school careers, crossing a fairly busy road. At home the kids whose parents worked would be on their own until about 5.30pm.

Times change. For the better?

Bill

[Broadback]

Times do indeed change. when I started school, almost 80 years ago, I walked the 1/4 mile plus to and from twice a day. there was no traffic to give concern, no one worried about molesters, though no doubt they were about! Though my Mother was always at home when I returned from school, in those days mothers did not work, only fathers.

[TimW]

I remember kids with keys round their necks on string. Must have been aged 7/8 and end of the 1960s. They let themselves in to the house when they got home alone.

TW

[Tufnell Park]

Ah the latch key generation!

[Dan S. MacAbre]

The Latchkey Children. Title of a book (which I read), and a TV series (which I missed).

[Harry Bloomfield]

Tufnell Park expressed precisely :

Same here, from around seven or eight, I would be making my own way home and letting myself in, key was round my neck on a leather lace. My father worked long irregular shifts, often away. Mother worked part time so not home to let me in so I was given a key.

[Dan S. MacAbre]

My mum was usually home, but if she was going out, she'd leave the top kitchen window open for me to climb in. Hard to believe now that I was ever that small or agile. My God, the deprivation! :-)

[Roger Hayter]

It's a trade-off. A little more safety in return for a more restricted existence. If we go back another thirty years to the inter-war years (and before) children wandered around all day on their own or with friends. They had much more frequent accidents, often fatal. But there was also a very significant mortality from infectious diseases. People's perceptions of the risks of life were different.

The safer life gets, the more we want to avoid even small risks. I don't think modern parents can be blamed for wanting to avoid tiny risks when life is otherwise so secure.

It's a shame, though.

[newshound]

One of my favourite quotes, from Nevil Shute.

"If I have learned one thing in my 54 years, it is that it is very good for the character to engage in sports which put your life in danger from time to time. It breeds a saneness in dealing with day to day trivialities which probably cannot be got in any other way, and a habit of quick decisions."

[tabbypurr]

I never had a key, never needed one.

NT

[Harry Bloomfield]

Dan S. MacAbre explained :

When stuck to get in without a key, I would simply use the coal delivery route. It was a cast-iron slid up panel, in a cast-iron vertical frame. Lift it out the way, slither in and then a 5" drop to the floor, or less if you were lucky and there was coal in there lol

[Harry Bloomfield]

Roger Hayter expressed precisely :

Yes, but look where it has taken us - to a blame and claim culture.

[Tim Streater]

Well I think they can be blamed. 75 yards is nothing at all. Aged 5 I walked about 2/3 of a mile to school and the same home. Nothing to it, and I'm sure others walked a lot further.

[Tufnell Park]

It may be good for the character but it can often be bad for the body and mind e.g Michael Schumaker.

[Harry Bloomfield]

Same here and as I got older I walked further and further afield, becoming more independent and confident the older I became. I would walk for many miles exploring.

[Richard]

Why is it out of the question for him to walk home alone? Anyway, perhaps he could just stay on at the school for the twenty odd minutes and his 17 year old sibling could walk him home.

They do in general. If the area is so dangerous, perhaps the boy needs training in self defence.

[whisky-dave]

Yes the 14 year-old boy on a moped who got killed didn't live far from me.

[Richard]

I'm fairly sure that Bill doesn't live in London.

[Andrew]

When I was 9 I would go off with my friends for most of the day outside term time. We would go cross country to visit streams,ponds, golfcourses to collect lost balls etc.

Sometimes we would go down to the beach and then wander through the docks to watch all the activity there, walk across the closed lock gates. There were no fences or people with yellow fluorescent jackets telling us to leave.

[invalid]

Well a sensible person would collect him and go to the park for 20 minutes rather than driving home with him only for someone else to drive the same way later to collect him.