To report two infant age children walking to school alone

[ThePosieParker]

... to the head of the school.

This morning I saw two siblings (I assume) walking to school alone, the oldest looked about yr2 at the most and the youngest a reception child. I wanted to phone the school as there could be a number of reasons these children are walking alone, not all sinister but in my mind none good enough,. This is Bristol, a busy city, not the place to allow children to cross roads and negotiate traffic and people at the age of 6 or below, surely.

So spidookly if you saw small children walking alone you would do nothing?

A child in England and Wales is killed by their parents every ten days....

altin....War torn countries? Really?

Some social workers are a risk to children.

Just calling SS and patting yourself on the back for a job well done is just passing the buck if you are really worried and just being a nosy dick if you are not.

Like usual AIBU has thrashed about the issue and I still feel right!

ThePosieParker Tue 25-Jan-11 13:54:55
My other SS thread? wtf?

I think people are recalling one you started about 6 months ago along a similar vein.

Look i'm off now and I am satisfied that in my world i'm right.

I do care about other peoples children, strange as it may seem and I would have made the same call to the school. By people criticising the op, - THEY ARE JUDGING TOO

If I saw small children I didn't know, wasn't sure of their ages, didn't know where they lived, how far they had walked, whether there was an older sibling nearby then it wouldn't even occur to me there was anything to be done.

Spid....Are you okay at the moment? You seem very angry.

FFS, Passing the buck? What should I have done bundled them in the car and taken them to school?

Calling Social Services because children are walking to school on their own is fucking ridiculous!

Loads of kids walk themselves to school where I live, inner city area.

Am leaving this now....all very weird.

"The time to report to SS is when you have reason to suspect abuse or neglect, not because you have reason to doubt parenting choices."

That ^^ is the crux of this matter for me. Says exactly what I think, very concisely.

spidookly behave

"Children were failed because people failed to fucking think, not because they didn't make thousands of nuisance calls to busy professionals." And whose failing would it be if one of those children were killed on that busy road while they were walking to school alone? The children's for not taking appropriate care while crossing the road? The driver's for not seeing two small children crossing a busy road alone? The passer by who saw those children walking to school alone and said nothing? Or the parent who allowed a six and four year old to walk to school alone, while they were not of an age to judge the traffic effectively?

Because if god forbid one of those children were killed on that road then enquiries would be made, and the parents would almost certainly be found to be negligent in their duty of care to their children.

One other thing.

Imagine this is a six year old and a four year old and it is the six year old that is knocked over by a car. Do you think a four year old would be able to tell the police, the paramedics etc who he was and where they lived and how to get hold of their parents? Do you think a four year old should have to be able to take that kind of responsibility?

Abduction is not something that would concern me. But busy roads are a real risk. Thousands of children are killed by cars every year. As parents it is up to us to do the best we can to keep our children safe. And allowing a six and four year old to cross a busy road alone with no adult supervision is not doing the best to keep those children safe - in fact it is neglect.

I'm not saying that people shouldn't judge.

I'm saying that they should judge intelligently .

Theres an awful of of sanctimonious do-gooders on this thread. What twisted minds you must have to assume the worst and also to assume you are the only ones with any moral centre! How unbearably self-involved.

I started walking to school alone at 6. I am strangely enough a fairly well rounded human being and not a crack-whore, neither was I abducted or ran over. Was my mother a neglectful parent? I fucking dare you to say yes.

Buzz.....yes or she just couldn't be arsed.

not read whole thread.

Maybe this will put things into perspective. A mum in this local area had a migraine one day and didn't wake up. Her DS 7yo at the time got his breakfast got ready and left for school. Came across work on the street with a sign directing pedestrians around it via the road. Knowing his mum always said walk on the pavement he turned around and headed for home. Was seen by another parent of the school who spoke to the child. He explained. The other parent took the child back to school, who rang the mum. She awoke at the call and was groggy and confused. The other mum went to her house and called gp out. There was also her dd only 2yo at the time and profoundly deaf in the house.

So yes, be concerned. If theres nothing sinister going on then no one gets hurt. But the other option......

i had/have a problem like this, and sadly in scotland (i have no idea on english etc laws) but at the age of 6 a child can walk to school alone as the child i know is 6 nothing can be done about it how is this acceptable? so as it stands i could send my son to school alone i know i wouldnt dare, but some people dont seem to care, there are 3 really bad roads to cross and i have walked the child many times myself with my son as i have seen him en-route and his mother has gave permission for me to do so. but she also left him at the bus stop to get the bus himself luckily i caught her and walked him down myself, and when we arrived at the school the bus still hadnt arrived. so he would most certainly have been late for school, now the other parent has a child to take to nursery but the school offer a breakfast club, therefore i would say that the child should be dropped there first then take other child to nursery
x

I was at primary school in the 70s and used to play by the river next to the green outside the school waiting for my Dad to pick me up. Sometimes he got delayed by dealing with a cow stuck in a ditch, sometimes he just plain forgot me. I would wait for hours sometimes. Nobody thought anything of it.

Re the op I think calling the ss was OTT. Not enough info to go on. Age, circumstance, whether it was a one off or a regular occurrence, traceability etc. presumably the op didn't think there was immediate danger - child about to walk into traffic etc. - or she would have intervened directly despite need to get home. If the children are the product of neglectful parents then this is likely to be evident to the school in more ways than making their own way to school.

If the children had been seen walking to school several times, and either looked worried or out of their depth in crossing busy roads then by all means contact the school to raise your concerns, but to go to ss after one sighting (according to op) seems excessive.

I'm also disturbed by the fact that people wouldn't feel happy talking to the children for fear of worrying them or others re stranger danger. Sigh, my childhood might not have been the good ole days, but there's lots I don't like about the present - and that's not related to the 'stranger danger' which I don't believe is any more prevalent than it was.