Would parents today send children away in a wartime evacuation?

[Rainallnight]

If there was another evacuation of children out of the cities, would you send yours?

I’m reading Goodnight Mister Tom to DD and of course it’s thrown up all sorts of chat about evacuees.

DD asked if I’d send her to the countryside and my first reaction was that I definitely wouldn’t. But then I thought, would anyone? People are much less biddable these days, have a different view of parenting and childhood, along with safeguarding etc.

I know the scenario is unlikely to arise given how different modern warfare is still interested in asking!

Would anyone take them now?

I think attitudes towards refugees and those displaced by war have changed significantly in the past century as the developed nations have moved further and further away from being the ones in need.

No, not having heard about the awful experiences some evacuees endured.

Have you seen what the Russians are doing to Kiev? Those that took their kids abroad had the right idea.

I’m not sure.
Are you sure you wouldn’t send her if you were living somewhere there was active bombing and couldn’t leave yourself?

But yes I would do anything to save my children (like most of those in war torn countries)

I guess the difference there is parents travelling with their children. Not sending them away

That is the tricky scenario. But where I got to was that I would just leave. I can’t imagine what would keep me in a city away from my DC. But maybe I’m lacking in imagination? I don’t do a critical job or anything

I often think about this.
I think it would be more like refugees these days - mothers would go with their children (like someone upthread said about Ukraine).
I can't imagine the staying with strangers would happen now.
If an whole school went together and stayed somewhere boarding school style then maybe.

Lots of people didn’t

many of those who did went and got them back after a few days/weeks until the bombing got really bad.

You would do anything to protect your children. People have short memories. Refugees have the same dilemma often

Yes I think I would if it was absolutely necessary.

I know a lovely lady who was evacuated during WW2. She was very neglected and her parents collected her.

But leave and go where? Live on the streets.
That would be my solution actually, a camper van.

If the alternative is being blown up and spending every night in terror that they might be, yes. Because regardless of our fear of strangers, the fact remains that most people are good and decent and will look after them.

Remember that in Goodnight Mr Tom, the boy was escaping an abusive home. Leaving isn't always a bad thing.

@Loubissou yes in Goodnight Mr Tom being evacuated saved Will's life (I love that book).
Personally I think if a similar mass evacuation happened these days children would stay as a group rather than individual families.
I might be wrong but I think in the 90s war in Bosnia coach loads of children were evacuated out but stayed living together in a group.

When my dd read goodnight mr tom and the class discussed evacuation she smugly told them she would just go to her grandparents (who live rurally) so yes in my case I would have packed the car up and left the city without question

Nope. My great grandma didn’t send my great auntie when her school got sent. That’s what I’m basing my thoughts on I guess, she figured she’d rather all get bombed together if it came to it.
I suppose in a different situation like as someone has said the East of Ukraine where children are at risk of kidnap perhaps I would behave differently if I was not able to leave with them.

Yes don’t forget that people back then often had jobs for life and many had their work changed by their employer so they were helping with the war effort, so they couldn’t just up sticks and leave.

Personally I hope I never have to be in that situation. I’m sure these days there would be so much safeguarding red tape that by the time there was somewhere for kids to go, there would be very few left to actually get there. I signed up for Homes for Ukraine in Ireland and it was over a year before I even heard back about the possibility, and I don’t think Eastern Ukraine has anywhere near the population density of London. It was the same during Covid, I signed up for the healthcare re-registration scheme and it took a year to hear back. They just don’t have the administrative power these days to set these sorts of things up quickly enough to actually make a difference (despite so many people with degrees in project management etc that never existed in the 40s).

I would send my to the other side of the planet- as far as it took for them to be safe. They’d be going to a relative though, if not send them like little parcels for randoms to take in. Many of the evacuees were treated horrendously.

I absolutely would if it was for the safety of their life. Without a second thought.

If the men were largely abroad at war and it was largely women then maybe but I think that men have been shown to have such a scale of issues with sexual predation that previous generations could never have contemplated and it is so prolific that it is hard to see how children would be safe in random environments without some people with clear parental concern for their wellbeing.

Of course they would if it was a life or death choice

I think you'd be selfish not too if there was a high chance of them being killed or maimed by bombing. You'd be prioritising your need to be with them over their need to not be blown to pieces.

This is a very parochial and insular thread. Evacuation exactly as we understand it happens on a daily basis in conflicts across the globe. It wasn’t a unique special thing that Brits were subjected to. And refugees are judged terribly by the vast majority of UK citizens. The regularity with which boys are judged to look like men genuinely brings to mind the concept of false rape allegations, aka vanishingly rare but allows a broad brush of hatred.

No, I'd leave with them and no power on this earth could stop me.

I think these days parents would travel with their dcs rather than let them travel alone. I know loads of families who went to stay in the country (from London) with relatives or to second homes, during the pandemic. Or went to other countries, when travel was allowed. With some families it was just one parent.

I don't think there would be a scenario these days where both parents would be expected to send their dcs away, to unvetted strangers. There is more awareness of safeguarding and potential for abuse, and parents would refuse to allow it.