10 year old using the tube alone?!!

My DS started taking the tube alone to school age 10/year 6. It builds confidence and independence. Lots of kids in London do I see them everyday on the tube

Having been on both they are quite similar. If anything tokyo is 'worse' as its busier and bigger.

At (just turned) 11 i was getting london buses and tubes on my own to go to school and back, and on the weekend would go a couple of stops to go to the cinema/shops with friends. It doesn't seem that different to me and presumably parents took baby steps to build her up to this. My only concern would be if she is changing at a station she doesn't know but equally if shea used to taking the tube i doubt they would be a problem. Getting the bus or tube isn't more dangerous than walking and i would definitely expect a 10 year old to be able to walk neighbourhood roads by themselves.

How do you think thousands of children get to school everyday in London?

DD has been using the tube alone since she was 10.

Born and brought up in London, we trained her what to do if we got separated, how to read a tube map, who to ask for advice, how to navigate key interchanges etc from a very young age.

At 10 she started with very short journeys - primary were instrumental in helping with this. Started with her walking from school to tube alone (3 major roads to cross) and school would call me to say she was leaving and I would call to say she'd arrived. Then moved to walk from school and tube to mainline station with same checks from school. After a week she was a pro.

British Transport Police have absolutely no issues with 11 year olds travelling unaccompanied.

DD has been taking 2 trains to school since she was just turned 11 on her own and never had an issue. She was particularly tiny in Y7 and they did stop her once to check she was okay (at Victoria) but never since.

Reasons, @RawBloomers. <taps nose> Reasons. On their 13th birthday they will be fine, but the day before ... not.

What an enormous change there has been in my lifetime. Some parents appear to be unable to contemplate allowing their children to take any risks at all, but unfortunately there comes a time when it has to be done. Their healthy development depends on learning how to carry out simple everyday tasks independently. No wonder we have an epidemic of anxiety amongst young people.

Back in the 1960s when I was growing up, I think my family was fairly typical. My brother and I had the sort of independence as children that many teenagers now don't appear to have. I had my own latchkey while still at primary school, often went to the shops to buy bread and so on (earliest occasion I can recall I was 5, I know this because we moved to a new town when I was 5.5), used the bus on my own from the age of 7 at the latest to go to the library to change my library books, made my own way to and from school, played out totally unsupervised by adults etc etc.

Yes, many children in those days did come to harm as a result of this lack of adult oversight - mostly from traffic accidents and injuries from doing stupid things. A small number would have fallen prey to sexual assault from predatory adults and older children. There would have been bullying, undoubtedly. But for those of us who managed to avoid those hazards it was a big help in developing independence, resilience, social skills, assertiveness and an ability to spot and assess risks.

In the decades since, the pendulum has swung the other way as many parents and legislators decided that children were being exposed to too many hazards, so needed more adult supervision. The result has been a big drop in injuries and deaths from accidents, but as so often there are other unintended consequences, and a lack of independence and resilience seems to be one of them. I don't know what the answer is. My own children (now in their 30s) certainly had far less freedom than their father and I had, but probably more than children do now.

Why not?

Nobody under 13 should be using the tube alone

I meet plenty of adults who are terrified about using the tube so I’m I can understand the difference in opinion here to those of us who use the tube all the time. My DC have grown up using the tube so they’d probably be ok on their own. I find it more scary that we’re happy to let a 17 year old loose in their own car!

Really don't offer to pick her up from home - the parents have a plan, just meet her at the tube near you like they asked! They know their child better than you and it sounds like something they've been working on - why would you think you know better?

How is she 10? Because her birthday is clearly before 31st Aug. In year 6 you are age 10 and 11. She may be just about to turn 11, but that still makes her 10.

I’d much rather my child be changing tubes at Victoria than getting the bus as there’s been a couple of deaths at the bus station there at Victoria in the last year. The tube is busy but feels safe enough.

Sounds like she knows the tube well, I’d just meet her at the station and let the parents make the decision about her transport options. My son was using the tube quite young; not that young but it’s good for them to be able to travel independently. DS is at Uni and said loads of his friends have never taken the train, they always get picked up / dropped off.

OP you sound terribly judgmental.

Come September this girl and thousands like her will be getting the tube across London to secondary school, so not sure what difference three months make.

People like you are why MN gets a bad rep.

Why not?

In terms of complexity, the Tokyo metro is even more complex than the London Underground and stations and interchanges can be incredibly busy.

Tokyo is generally a very safe city but sexual assault on metro lines is sadly very common.

Child commuters in Japan are the result of cultural difference in how independent and self-reliant children are expected to be. It’s not that their metro system is somehow better suited to children commuting alone.

There's also CCTV all over the tube. Those stations at that time will have plenty of people around, no one is going to stand by if a child is having an issue.

I see unaccompanied primary school kids on the tube all the time.

@Sunshineandpinkclouds

the two metros are not comparable.

There is always risk. As there is if OP picked the girl up and drove her.

Criminal incidents on the tube have shot up in the last few years, but the tube is still safer now than 40 years ago. Number of incidents (despite recent rise) is around the same as it was in the 80s while the number of users has soared by a third. So the chances of being a victim of abduction, sexual assault, robbery or anything else, are lower now than they used to be. And the chances of being injured or killed in an accident much lower than in a car.

A child of 10 using the tube on her own? I just can’t comprehend it, it’s terrifyingly dangerous.

It really isn't. Statistically it's more dangerous in a car. My kids took the tube at 9, it's not hard to navigate and most kids have mobile phones.

London is a busy place and there's always people that are happy to help.

@RawBloomers but the risk is still there right? It has to be on a case by case basis doesn’t it. Some kids are more mature and others less so. It’s down to what parents are comfortable with. It just feels young to me.

Yes so very nearly 11.

Either way the child’s parents are best placed to know their child.

In England the school year runs from 1st September to 31st August. The little girl could easily be ten now and eleven by 1st September when she starts Year 6.

I used to take the metro, admittedly in a different/smaller and arguably safer city at 11. I probably wouldn't be letting my child at that age, however it doesn't sound completely absurd to me either. Year 6's walk to school independently where I live and I don't really see it as any more dangerous than that. I'd be more worried about them crossing the road safely.....

Sexual assault statistics say a 16 year old girl is at far more risk than a 10 year old.

I would assume that they can decide what’s appropriate for their child, just like I imagine you think you know what’s appropriate for yours.