Brighton to London - Too Young

What a bonkers plan.

She isn’t going to want to keep doing it. she will make local friends at school and is much better off doing activities in Brighton. The trains can be very unreliable and cancellations etc are too much for her to deal with at that age.

Well a quick search on the Trainline website, using the start/end times given in the OP, would suggest that it will cost £29.24 for a return rail ticket (Brighton to London Victoria). Tube fares should be free (with a Zip card), but there's still the cost of lunch, any drinks etc.

Every week? I think that's a lot - especially when the alternative would be doing those activities in a place where she lives, which would also mean she makes friends locally.

Putting aside her age and the fact that she'll be gone every Saturday, this has her missing out on making local friends which is really important as she moves through senior school. It's a bad idea.

As the Tommy Robinson protest march that happened the other day apparently began outside Victoria Station I definitely wouldn't want an 11 year old travelling there by themselves.

I assume the people saying no way/too young don't live in London. This child currently does so is presumably used to the transport system. Thousands of 11 year olds get on the tube on their own in London every day of every term to go to school and they all seem to manage fine. The main problem here isn't the tube or the lack of supervision, it's the hours out of her weekend it will take and the high likelihood of weekend engineering works.

No flipping way.

I think she is too young, and I have put an 11 year old on a 45m train from Essex to London, took them to platform and literally put them on train, they were met at the other end. No way would I have had the tube bit though.

This is silly. While I'm fairly sure that your DD would be completely fine given that she lives in London now and is probably completely au fait with public transport, I can't fathom why anyone would want to spend hours of their weekend on trains. Not to mention the cost! I'm fairly sure she hasn't fully appreciated how boring it might be either.

Plus it would be of far more benefit to your DD to start making friends in the new location and hobbies can help with this. If the hobbies are available in Brighton then it would be much better to get her started on these sessions asap so she can make some friends who live nearby, hopefully meet some children who'll be going to her new school.

If it's something very niche that she really loves (it doesn't sound like it from what you have said) I'd consider it. But honestly, spending all that time commuting to hobbies seems a poor way to spend her precious weekends.

Crazy idea - she'd be out of the house, unsupervised for about 12 hours, assuming no travel delays with the two train trips and four tube trips, every Saturday.

I'd suggest that if it's such a great idea and so easy, DH can tag along for the ride too ... He can do a couple of hobbies himself whilst there...

They can have some lovely 1-2-1 time and I'm sure DH won't be utterly exhausted/bored trvelling in a D out of London every single Saturday for a hobby he could do on his doorstep.

What does your husband mean by "work around the cancellations"? It sounds to me like "lalala, I'm not going to think about potential problems, you're just a negative Nellie ". Does he realise that, as you work Saturdays, HE will need to be the one to come up with the solution, week after week?

Not too young, I did similar at that age, but pointless if same activities can be done in Brighton. She’ll probably get bored of the travel pretty quickly and want to make local friends.

Sorry OP but it's crazy to even consider this! She's too young.

Your DH is nuts for suggesting this. She’s far too young.

I don’t think she’s too young but I do think it sounds exhausting and not much fun. She’ll just be starting a new school in a new area and Saturday would be a good day to see the new friends.

Doing stuff with old friends sounds nice... at first. But soon she will have new friends... and doing stuff with them will also be fun. Unless the activities is at a lot higher level in London.

I don't think it's too young especially for a child who has grown up in London, most children that age will be using public transport for senior school and some will be doing more complex journeys than that across the city. But it seems a bit pointless if there is an equivalent activity in Brighton - I'd only consider it for a niche or high level hobby that couldn't be done locally. And think about if there are additional sessions that would have to happen in addition to the Saturdays, eg performances etc. It would just be a pain.

I don't think I was precious about my children doing things but that would be a hard no from me. One of my children was very mature for his age, the other less so, but I wouldn't have even let the mature one do that at that age. I just think there are too many sick or evil people who may be on the train or potentially follow them off the train. The upside of this is small, seeing some old acquaintances, and the possible downside doesn't bear thinking about. In any case, I think it's important to make new local friends rather than looking back.

I kind of think the opposite to your DH - won't doing the activity in Brighton help DD to make local friends?

I out my daughter on a train from Brighton to London when she was 11. But to be met at the other end by a friend and her parent. I think it’s ok to do it occasionally but chances are that things will go wrong if it’s weekly.

Absolutely no way

I'm gung ho about these things. My mother used to put me on a train from the south coast when I was 7/8 (few Bob for the steward to keep an eye on me), 2 hrs later my gran used to collect me from Victoria. DH's did similar from Yorksgir to London!

I'd say no and certainly not every week. Whilst everyone has a mobile, trains no longer have guards or restaurant cars.

It’s not that expensive on a Saturday! Weekdays are a different matter.

Weird plan all round and yes she's too young, but you'll get cool Mums coming on to tell you that they put their 5 year olds on a sleeper train to Glasgow every other day and you need to unclench.