10 year old using the tube alone?!!

This kid will be travelling outside of school hours so there might not be many others of her age using the tube. This makes her more visible which might be a problem but I’d be concerned about that.

More like Dramatic Granny 🙄🙄

How is she 10 if she's coming to the end of the school year?

She must be either 11 or just about to turn 11.

Either way, every time I take the tube there are tonnes of school kids that age, getting themselves to and from school.

Technically they could easily take on getting the tube from an ability point of view. Whether I would feel comfortable knowing how many weirdos are on the tube is another matter. So actually, based on the weirdos I have encountered on the tube and the fact I have been sexjally assaulted on the tube. No I wouldn't let my child do this at ten alone.

In what way is it terrifyingly dangerous?

I would want a ten year old to be with a mate/ mates but children who live in London use the tube every day to get to school, it's just like using a bus.

Nooooo! Nadda Nadda Nadda Noooo Wayyyy! Helicopter Granny here but really? A child of 10 using the tube on her own? I just can’t comprehend it, it’s terrifyingly dangerous.

@MyQuaintDog It’s down to personal choice, I personally wouldn’t feel safe if my child was doing that at 10 but others are free to do as they like. It isn’t just abduction is it, what do the sexual assault statistics say?

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g crime statistics?

This so wrong.

The only child ever abducted from the London tube was forty years ago. The tube was less safe then than now.

Evidence for this?

Wow 10 feels so young these days and it’s nowhere near as safe as it used to be when we were little.

I've had this exact problem with my 11y.o son and Ex P wanting him to not use trainline ( NOT London underground and he was travelling one train stop ONLY ) My son wanted to travel on his own. As it was a well used route for us as a family. I was told that British transport police do not allow children under the age of 12 years old to travel unaccompanied. Equally I've NO idea how or where the British transport police operate or even if this is true ? But honestly I'd personally struggle to leave a child aged 10 years old ( sensible and responsible or not !!) to travel on any train especially London underground. Especially female children too. Not entirely safe at all. But then maybe that's just me !

Good for them for travel training their child in good time for the secondary transition.
You can offer to give them a lift if it makes you happier but they will know their own child.

Because in reality there is almost no risk. Tens of thousands of children of this age get public transport to school every day and they’re all fine. The would be more at risk in the back of their parents’ car. But fatal car crashes (which happen every day) don’t make the news and child abductions (which happen extremely rarely) make front page headlines, so parents convince themselves stranger danger is what’s going to harm their kids rather than something much more mundane. And then, like a PP pointed out, we wonder why we have a teenage mental health crisis.

Probably not, but all it takes is for that person to realise she is alone and then follow her off the train.
As a criminal defence solicitor, I have spoken with a number of predatory people over the years who have told me they have specifically targeted children who were alone and vulnerable.
I accept my job may make me more cautious but why take the risk?

Much easier than the bus,I agree.

If an "unsavoury character" wanted a preteen girl, they would more likely look near a Secondary school at 3pm. Not a random tube at 10am on a Saturday.

An “unsavoury character” is not going to be able to approach this child on a busy train.

The tube is actually one of the safest ways to get around and far safer than a bus in my experience.

Ultimately it depends on the child. A child of ten who is experienced at independent tube travel will take it in their stride, a less mature and more anxious child may not. My daughter would have been fine with it but if she had signalled to me that she was uncomfortable I would have accompanied her.

Let the child and the parents be the judge of this though OP: you sound slightly anxious but it’s their call.

In Japan, kids of 6/7 travel in public transport like this to get to school etc - it’s the norm. Children in this country are mollycoddled in my opinion. Also, she’s not your child!

Jesus.

Whoever said child won't be using public transport until 14.

Some of you need to read this: The Anxious Generation : How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt: New (2024) No | Ria Christie Collections (abebooks.co.uk)

I wouldn’t let my 10 year old do this but equally, this is not your daughter or your call it’s her parents and you need to respect that.

I allow my 10 year old to walk to a friend’s house a few quiet streets away (less than a 5 minute walk). I always ask that they allow her to walk home alone and message me when she’s on the way but the friends parents don’t like this and insist on walking her home. I don’t say anything because I know it’s out of kindness but I do find it a little judgmental and disrespectful of my parenting decisions.

The problem is these over protected kids turn 18. go to university, and struggle to manage. They develop anxiety, and stay in their room playing games.

How hopeless are English kids, if most parents can’t imagine them doing anything on their own. Children all over the world manage a high degree of independence at much younger ages (all through Asia, Africa and South America). Assuming that English children are not stupider, it must be parental anxiety that makes the average 12’year old English child less capable than a 6 year child from Japan who happily wears their train pass on a lanyard around their neck and catches the subway to school.