Starting to get concerned about sending my child to nursery

[MikeL1993]

After yesterday's events in Edinburgh where that man tried to enter a nursery with 2 knives I am really starting to worry about sending my 2 year old to nursery.

We live in the North West and over the last 12 months there have already been 2 instances where things have happened. Firstly a man from a nearby HMO entered the nursery/primary school grounds and just walked around. Thankfully my child wasn't at nursery on this day and the man was soon arrested and it has since come out that he had no weapons on him but clearly had learning problems.

The second instance was last Summer where someone else from a nearby HMO blocked the road he lived on with wheelie bins and was walking up and down the road with knives. This happened about half a mile away from my child's nursery and about an hour before this event he was seen outside the nursery ripping down banners and damaging property. The nursery did reassure us that the children were safe at all times however I still feel incredibly uneasy. The nursery is only surrounded by a 6 foot fence so someone could easily scale it if they wanted to.

My girlfriend thinks I am being extremely paranoid but the world and this country feels like an incredibly dangerous place currently and I am constantly on edge. Does anyone else feel like this?

It depends does your nursery have good safety measures? I was worried but one of my sons schools for example, you cant even get into the entrance to reception without being buzzed in and prooving you have an appointment or are a parent, they wont let anyone in otherwise. The fences cant be climbed due to spikes etc and theres cctv all over the place even in the car parks and my other childs school is mostly the same they even practice lockdown once a year.
Most places are like this now so if you dont think your childs nursery is a safe place find somewhere you feel comfortable with as there will be somewhere.

No I don't. These things can happen absolutely anywhere. Unless you seal yourself in your house forever, there's always going to be a (very small) element risk of anything happening.

It does have good safety measures in the sense that to enter the building itself you have to ring a bell and then the outer door opens to let you in but then there is another door that you have to be opened for you too before you're fully into the building where the different rooms are.

The nursery and school itself is on a main road and whilst there is a fence that runs the entire length of the grounds the main gate is left open all day, it was previously shut but things seem to have slackened off again in that regard.

I just feel more concerned because it is now becoming Summer the children will be playing outside again and they can be seen from the main road and the fence around the outside section of the baby room is only 6 foot high. I am considering talking with nursery but I don't want to appear paranoid.

What do you realistically expect nursery to do though? It sounds like they have good measures in place already. They have secure entries and fences in the garden.

I can understand the anxieties and I think the media plays on this but we by far live in a safe country, it certainly isn't on par with some war torn Middle Eastern country. The actual risk of something happening to your child is VERY small.

I think it's important as a parent to be aware of your own anxieties and ensure that they don't transfer to your children or hinder their own development. You're never going to fully eliminate all risks. You're talking about nursery now, but what about when they go to school, or want to go out with friends or when they are teenagers and off out on their own. You can't keep them locked up forever.

The nursery I sent mine to was far more secure than my house. You’re more likely to be attacked in a park/on the street/etc, so unless you are planning on barricading yourself in your house everyday, your child will probably be safer at nursery.

Statistically speaking, your child is much more likely to be harmed out and about (crazy person on the bus or in the playground), or let’s be honest, most children who are harmed or killed, it happens in the home by a trusted adult.

A nursery is so, so much safer than sitting in a cafe or riding on a train where there are no safety measures in place and no one trained in how to respond to an emergency situation (early years staff will have training you don’t have, will have secure doors that aren’t present in a cafe, etc).

I would just speak to them about their security protocol so you can understand better and hopefully be reassured.