Evacuation wouldn’t happen now would it?

I'm not in UK... Did I miss something? Speak of evacuations?

@PyongyangKipperbang I remember a similar conversation with my mum where she said she’d run out in the street to make sure the bomb got her. I thought this was awful as a kid. I understand it better now.

I live in a big house in the countryside with spare bedrooms, so you could move in with me.😊
No seriously, stop worrying but if anything did ever happen, I think people in safe places would open up their homes.

Michael Caine was evacuated and he and another small boy were housed with a completely monstrous woman, who fed them only pilchards, and locked them in a cupboard under the stairs when she went out. His mother must have worried about a lack of letters or something because she travelled to the house and turned up unannounced at the door, when she saw the state Michael was in she punched the woman in the face and took him home to London.

Not quite the same but my grandfathers never talked about their time in service in the war.

My maternal GF especially was tight lipped up until he saw something on TV around Remembrance day or similar. One of the other veterans would say something about what he saw or experienced and he would say "If he can talk about what he saw, then he never bloody saw anything!" and then go and be alone for a few hours. He was in Burma.

None of the people in our family who have seen active service (including my Uncle who was in the Falklands in the Navy) have talked about it openly. These days there is much more of a "talk it through to deal with the trauma" attitude, but that is very recent. "Squash it down and pretend it never happened" was far more common.

I think it would happen, but a parent (probably the mother) woukd go with the child/ren.

I think collectively my entire family would move to a remote farm in Scotland or something, or even far abroad. I would not be leaving my husband and male family members to fight some old politicians war that is absolutely nothing to do with us or any of the general public

Depends on the circumstances. Kinder transport was the escape/evacuation out of Germany before the outbreak of war. What if it was a virus that affected adults but not children. Would you let your children be with you. Thinking about the film Deep Impact where the mother hands the baby to her older daughter and tells her to go before the tidal wave arrives. Would you/we do that? Next war will be cyber. The nuke option is always there but if you can cripple a nation without destroying it then that's a better option

I think most of them wouldn’t talk about it. My gran was evacuated and refused point blank ever to mention it. According to her sister, something happened and my great gran went to pick her up, she went back to London for a few years and then was evacuated a second time but with a sibling. The story was she was abused in some way. Both my grandmothers refused to talk about the war, they said was an awful time and they wanted to put it behind them.

but its not like Covid? People were required to stay indoors during covid. I don't think that parents were required to evacuate their children.

I remember during the 80;s talking to my dad about the mythical "Four Minute Warning" and I asked him if he would try to get us away. He said no, he would take us outside and "watch the sun go down".

Ten/Eleven ish year old me was horrified that he wouldnt try to save us. But I didnt understand that getting blown away in the blast was far preferable to trying to survive afterwards and probably dying of radiation sickness anyway.

So now, I agree with him.

And this has been the advice for years , even more so these past two years

Goodness, I'm so stupid! Thank you so much for your reassurance.
Can only imagine what those people went through, bless them.
Thank you SuperTrooper14

Same. Has something big happened?

Oh God! That scene was what started me blubbering in the cinema 😭 And then my sister elbowed me in the ribs and told me to get a grip ‘cos I was embarrassing her 😳

But not everyone "obeyed".
My own grandmother stayed on London with her young children throughout the war. Refused to be evacuated, declaring that they would be better dying together. She was fairly dramatic her whole life tbf.
Lots of families made their own arrangements. My mother in law went with her Mum and sister to stay with distant cousins. They knew where they were going, and it saved the cousins taking in strangers.

My Mum's parents refused to let her and her brother be evacuated. My granny looked after them - grandad was in the RAF and spent the latter years of the war in India.

Don't stress! People are watching the VE Day celebration on BBC One and lots of former evacuee children have been on to share their stories.

I haven't read the news today. Am genuinely worried now due to this thread and feel I should watch the news but too anxious too now... Can someone please tell me what is happening?

https://timewitnesses.org/evacuees/~sheelagh.html

There are countless stories of neglect and abuse. Many of the families took the children in for the financial support and many were malnourished, along with mental and physical abuse being common.

My grandparents lived in London. Father, uncle and aunt all evacuated. Father went to a farm in Cheshire. He was homesick but they were very kind. It left him with a lifelong love of the countryside.

Meanwhile in London granny did nursing, grandpa dug people out of bombed buildings. It was a mad time for them.

My Mum had evacuees come to stay them when she was young, she hated them😟, I think it was difficult from both sides, obviously being away from everything you know and not used to "country life" but also shortages and rationing and finding extra for more ppl, not just food but clothes, school stuff, space etc.

I saw an interview with a lady who had been an evacuee on breakfast tv in the week. She had been fostered by a wonderful family, with the mum becoming her second mum and still in touch with her 'siblings'. But her brother had been picked by a farmer wanting a boy who could labour and he had a hard time (just 8 years old and picked to be a labourer 😢). The evacuees had a reunion many years later and many spoke of physical and sexual abuse and she felt guilty for having had the life of Riley (her words). Made me incredibly sad to think of all those little kids and their parents thinking they were doing the right thing for them.

How long everything takes nowadays we would either be annihilated or the war would be over by the time it was organised

I would be sad to not be with all my children if the Bomb fell. But they would all be with their families so that would have to do.