Does anyone here think their young child would cope with 'the queue'

[Stripeystrip201]

Mine are teens now but I'm thinking back to their primary school days and I can't fathom how they'd manage with queuing for 13+ hours. Constantly moving, not able to sit down, cold through the night. I'm just in awe at the young kids who have done it. Mine would have been in tears I'm sure.

I think the longest we ever queued with them was at legoland. That was bad enough and there was an exciting ride at the end of it!

They would be bored out their brains. During the day not to bad, there's all the sights to see. They wouldn't be OK overnight.

Are kids really queuing? I presumed the parents were and then the children join them later.

I think it's balmy. My kids (4 and 3) would hate it and would make it less enjoyable for those around them. Selfish I think.

Well that would make more sense, I don't actually know if that's what's happening. I assumed they'd queued.

Honestly I’m pretty agog that people have brought their children. Obviously above a certain age they’ll be fine, excited even and want to be there, and understand what they’re doing.

But there’s definitely been some very young children. The babes in arms are fine - oblivious and comfortable. But the toddlers and pre schoolers…I just can’t fathom it. It’s a near constantly moving queue, stopping but not long enough to camp out or anything. After a while, once the adventure has worn off, through the night they must be cold, uncomfortable and just want their bed.

There’s an article about a 7 year old who was pushed aside by the man who ran towards the coffin. Her aunt was interviewed talking about how unfair it was that she’d queued for 15 hours since 2am. But all I could think was…a seven year old has been queuing for 15 hours since TWO AM in the morning. She looked utterly exhausted.

DD age 9 was bored queuing for 45 mins for something she really wanted to do at Disney world, not a chance would she queue for 12 hours!

Watching sky news earlier there were some kids being interviewed in the queue, they looked 10-12 and they'd done the full queue.

Ds1 would/ could have power through it and find it exciting. Call it a camping trip. Instead of seeing nature we would be seeing humans and different part of London.
My other children would not do well queuing.
If I was going to do anything, it would have been to join the volunteering group in my council, who are helping people in the queue.

Someone I know went with her 2 kids, the youngest is 3. The queue was about 6 hours then. I have a 3 year old. No idea how she managed it. Seems selfish to me. Not something I'd expect my kids to do. It wouldn't be fair on them. Or anyone in the queue near them

My 9yo would be fine if we did something like got there at 7am and had a 12 hour wait from there.
Snacks, lunch and a couple of books. He would read while walking.

My 3yo - not a hope. I stood in a queue with him for 10 mins yesterday and it was awful.

If you watch the live there are tons of little kids! Some 2 years old

God no- and if I did I imagine they’d walk out the other side going “was that it”

I couldn’t cope with it let alone DS!

Mine’s 2 and it can be challenging waiting in a queue at the supermarket sometimes, so no.

my niece is 13 and happily told her mum (who wanted to queue) that she didn’t want to go 😁 I do worry that she would have been dragged there if younger and unable to state her case properly.

Seems a terrible idea to me. 12+ hours in a queue in the cold with my toddler… awful. I wouldn’t even begin to consider that.

There is no way that, at the other side, they’re going to be grateful for the experience. Or feeling contemplative.

As far as I was aware, the people organising the lying in state were keen to dissuade people who wanted to bring their kids. It’s hardly a family day out. Seems that, inevitably, people don’t listen.

I feel really sorry for all the kids whose parents have dragged them there.

I find it weird that people bring children - I've even seen the odd baby on the livestream. That said, there was a boy who looked about 7 just ahead of me in the queue with his whole family - and this was on Friday so he must have missed school for it. I was pleasantly surprised by how well he coped - he was lively, not tired, even at the start (6 a.m.), enjoyed running around on the south bank and looking at interesting things, and still seemed happy in the final section (westminster gardens). Never noticed any strops or whinging. He had a couple of brief breaks on a bench with a tablet but not for long as the queue moved almost continually. We were daytime though - started shortly about 6 a.m. and got into the hall about 5.30 p.m. Keeping kids up all night for it is madness.

The only reason I can think of for making a child queue for 12 or 14 hours, especially overnight, would be to escape danger. To get over a border in a war situation for example.

Not to look briefly at a coffin (which you can't actually see because there is a cloth on top).

My dd would not have coped with the queue, in fact I think she’d still struggle now at 19. Ds’s would have been fine but wouldn’t have wanted to.

Dh and I were just saying the same last night whilst watching the news, it’s complete madness to take young kids in this situation.

Loved the honesty of the girl on the news who, when asked, said it was 'dull'