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.

But wannabe what you're saying then is that I need to be getting ready for a call from SS when I let my DD do stuff that is age appropriate because she is small?

That some random passerby can phone SS and judge me even when I have made an age appropriate decison and that's OK? It's acceptable?

So I have to tell DD, to follow your logic, that in order to protect me from accusations from SS she cannot do age appropriate things?

ThePosieParker doesn't know these kids, and I don't think she stopped and asked their ages. (Willing to be proved wrong on that one though)

GORGE...this is Mumsnet....and AIBU.

ThePosieParker since you asked, IMHO YABVVVVVU to have phoned SS.

Not if you'd phoned the school, which is what you said in the OP, but VVVVU to have phoned SS

YES OP I KNOW IT'S MUMSNET AND YES, IN ANSWER TO YOUR QUESTION YABVU.

I wouldn't, because people in the UK all too often allow their children to hoon round like dogs from the time they can stand up because they are too lazy
to bring them up properly under the guise of making them independent then wonder why there's such a problem with hooligans and goons.

Leave 'em to it. You reap what you sow.

LadyintheRadiator - I think phoning the school was possibly justified, but not SS

I was stuck behind a refuse lorry, I had, what seemed like, a long time to look at the children and I asked them if they were alone, I would not feel comfortable asking such youg children their names. If a stranger asked my dss their names I would be very worried and think it blurs the stranger danger message.

imust....you are sounding a little crazy, noone has reported your dd and I presume that if someone saw a four year old (as your dd looks, although my 4 yr old wears age six clothes) you would prefer them not to give a shit if they saw them after dark popping to the shop because they maybe nine?

YANBU to do something and report it to school and wait to hear more.

YABU to ring SS so quickly.

Can someone just tell me why it's ok to call someone a 'meddlesome cow' but not a 'nutter'. ?

LadyintheRadiator - Posie stopped and talked to them and told them to be careful.

So she had already engaged in conversation with them.

Yep, that seems to be what madas and others with small children are saying Lady. Whilst putting their fingers in their ears and going la la la la la when Posie, a woman of diminutive stature and of diminutive heritage, says she is certain as far as she can be that these are very young children.

People don't generally know the exact circumstance of any case when they make a call for help.

Hmmmmmm. I used to walk to school with friends aged 5. I never had busy roads to contend with, I just walkded through the Academy and primary school grounds...it was still about a mile though.

Anyway, I didn't get touched up by paedos, abducted, run over or eaten by wild dogs.

I did have a stone thrown at me by an older boy once but that's because I gave him the fingers for sitting on my neighbours wall.....

you ask them if they are alone but not how old they are or their names? What on earth was the point of that then? I don't believe you spoke to them at all.

YANBU, our school only allows Yr6 children to arrive/leave without a parent. I would have resported two very small childre walking to school alone, better to be safe than sorry.

Lady - if she was that concerned about talking to them then she shouldn't have stopped at all imho.

My view, and I will say it again, is that calling SS was an over reaction.

TurkeyBurger - we used to get snowballs thrown at us [bgrin]

Buzz I don't believe she spoke to them either. In fact I'm not sure I believe that ANY of this has happened. OP you have not answered my question about why you didn't wait for the school to answer the 'phone, yet you 'phoned S.S. and then posted on here
????

"My view, and I will say it again, is that calling SS was an over reaction."

No need for you to say it again madas. The point has been made loads of times on this thread, there's no need for you to bang on about it.

The more interesting question is whether its normal/acceptable/within the realms of most mumsnetters' everyday experience to see two little children walking alone to school. And whether if, as an adult, when we see two children who look vulnerable, we just put aside our disquiet and comfort ourselves with the fact that their parents judged them to be fine or that, because they don't look dirty or unkempt, they cannot be neglected or in danger.

Are there really schools that don't allow children to leave without a parent until they're 10/11 (Year 6)?

Presumably they're in places where children don't get public transport to school, or do they expect parents to accompany them on the bus?

Bibbity - The point I'm trying to make is that if you were going to stop and talk to the kids, as Posie did, then surely it would make logical sense to ask how old they were, did they have far to walk, could you walk with them to school?

IDK.

I would probably phone the school. But if Posie didn't know who the kids were, didn't know their names, then what exactly was she going to report?

And if you'd stopped to ask names so that you could report to SS would you not ask them "What class are you in?"

Tyler - my school its Year 5.

I can't help but feel you are nit picking.

Bibity maybe Madas keeps saying it because you keep repeating what you just said.

The majority of the posters on here agree that one shouldn't turn a blind eye. The general consensus has been that one should NOT turn a blind eye, but that 'phoning S.S. was over the top.