Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

I am aren't I? Don't want DS to go on school trip he is too small!

184 replies

BupcakesandCunting · 31/01/2012 12:32

DS is in reception class (4 years old) and we got a letter home last week to say they are going on a school trip to Twycross Zoo. I offered my services as a parent helper as I do help out sometimes at the forest school/trips etc and his teacher said "No but thanks, we'll be taking members of staff for school so we're all covered!"

Errrr, you what?! How many staff are they taking to cover 60 4/5 year olds?! There's only ten teachers at the school anyway and I don't think they'll be taking all of the teachers out.

Oh help me and tell me I'm being a nob. I have visions of DS or one of his classmates inadvertently getting separated and lost from their class or whatever. In my defence, I'm not the only one I earwigged on some other mums this morning in the playground and they're a bit Hmm about it too.

OP posts:
ZeldaUpNorth · 31/01/2012 13:05

Oh and the ratio was 1:2 I had dd and another little boys hand the entire time.

GwendolineMaryLacey · 31/01/2012 13:05

He'll be fiiiiiiiine.

Original poster
BupcakesandCunting · 31/01/2012 13:06

BalloonSlayer Grin

Aw, I'm not going to stop him from going. I just wanted reassurance that I'm being a muppet worrying about his geting lost. I do try really hard not to project my fears on to him, tbh, as I remember being scared of my own shadow when I was little thanks to my doom and gloom loving mother. So even when he's six foot up a rope ladder, I am there with a fixed grin on my mush, two thumbs aloft going "YEAH! GREAT CLIMBING DS! WHOO!" even though inside I can feel my heart screaming.

OP posts:
redrubyshoes · 31/01/2012 13:09

Buppy

Please tell me you are NOT thinking of secretly following your child around a zoo disguised as a tree or a gnu or whatever. Please.

Denj33 · 31/01/2012 13:09

I let my DS walk to school on his own:( well with friends) at 10........and then followed at a distance to make sure he was ok lol

Now my DS and DD are 13 & 14 and it gets a lot easier to let them go out on their own, of course soon I'll be following them to make sure they are not drinking taking drugs kissing boys going clubbing ..... The list is endless :(

mojitomania · 31/01/2012 13:09

Bless, I remember what I was like when my on DS was that age. You'll be full of angst but let him go Grin

RumourOfAHurricane · 31/01/2012 13:10

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

BabyGiraffes · 31/01/2012 13:10

It has never occured to me not to let my dd go on school trips and I think you are BU for not letting him go. And yes, my dd is summer born and 4, but she's been going on trips since she was 3 and in nursery. I trust the teachers to do their job. YANBU to be anxious and PFB about it but try to see it from his perspective... all his friends go and his mummy thinks he's just too small Hmm

Original poster
BupcakesandCunting · 31/01/2012 13:10

"Please tell me you are NOT thinking of secretly following your child around a zoo disguised as a tree or a gnu or whatever. Please."

HAHHAHHHAHHAHAHHAHAHHHAHAHAHHHAHAHAHAHHA! NO! What kind of loon would do that?! Eh?! What kind of loon?

OP posts:
MateyMooo · 31/01/2012 13:10

dreamingofsummer Grin

redrubyshoes · 31/01/2012 13:11

Buppy

Take the costume back to the shop NOW.

porcamiseria · 31/01/2012 13:11

just say no, or have him be sick that day. yanbu

brassick · 31/01/2012 13:12

Slight hijack, sorry.

Mike and Gaynor are the names of my brother and SIL. What on earth have they been up to now?!?

Maryz · 31/01/2012 13:12

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Hopstheduck · 31/01/2012 13:16

yanbu for worrying, but you are if you don't him go!

It's a zoo at least - it will be enclosed and even if the worst did happen and they did lose him, he isn't going to get very far! When my DTS were tiny, I used to LIVE at legoland. It was nicely enclosed and if they wandered off there was no traffic, and tons of other visitors to intercept them! I lost one of the other a few times, since it is impossible to run in two directions at once. Grin

I was terrified on the first school trips tho too. I always worried about the bus part as I missed a school trip as a child due to illness where the coach ended up in a ditch. So it is perfectly normal to worry, you have to jsut take a deep breath and deal with it.

Floggingmolly · 31/01/2012 13:16

It is odd that they said no to parent helpers, bizarrely I always feel slightly safer if I know other parents are going, even if I can't go myself Confused

WilsonFrickett · 31/01/2012 13:17

I went on the P1 zoo trip last year (loooooooong story)

  1. The zoo is dead during the week (specially at this time of year) - the picture you have in your head is probably of a weekend in the summer when it's mobbed. Really, it was dead (and that was in May btw) apart from school parties.
  2. The ratios will be enough. Of course it will, or they wouldn't be allowed to go.
  3. The trip will go like this - arrive. Look at two animals. Go to the education centre. Sit down and have a talk. Eat lunch at ed centre. Go to toilet. Go to playpark. Get back on bus. Wander time minimal.
  4. You are being a nob. But only a little one
Grin
Perriwinkle · 31/01/2012 13:17

Sorry but you are being a noob.

Schools have years of experience of these sorts of trips. They also have years of experience of dealing with all sorts of children, with different characters and needs too. Give them some credit.

Let your DS go and see him come back safely having had a lovely time all eager to tell you all about it. It'll do you the world of good.

My DS started school in the September as he'd just turned 4 at the end of August so was really only just 4 in reception and it would never have crossed my mind to think he was too small to go on a school trip without me - and he is my first and only child so I quite resent this whole "PFB" thing. Some parents would be PFB-ish if they had 20 kids. It's just how you are.

onadietcokebreak · 31/01/2012 13:18

I had a similar dilemma a while ago.

For me the trip itself wasn't the problem- the lack of 3 point belts and booster seats was.

I was in tears about it- most unlike me!

When I found out my son (3) was sitting up the top of a double decker bus on the return I felt sick- I still need to address that but know the school will be defensive.

Original poster
BupcakesandCunting · 31/01/2012 13:18

"Sorry but you are being a noob."

Errr, I've been here two years, thanks.

OP posts:
Perriwinkle · 31/01/2012 13:19

Sorry I meant nob.

boredandrestless · 31/01/2012 13:19

Aaw, you are being a nob! [said kindly] Grin

They are going for a walk around the zoo, it's not like they are taking them white water rafting or something! It won't just be teachers going, they will have TA's, regular school helpers, student placements, etc. Who are all trained and on the look out for their small allocated group of children, not just one child (like a parent 'helpfully' volunteering would be). He'll be fine and he'll love it.

Has anyone on here been to Twycross Zoo BTW? Me and DS are booked on an excursion there during a weekend away - have never heard of it before!

boredandrestless · 31/01/2012 13:22

anadietcokebreak - don't you ever use public transport with him? Genuinely curious BTW, I don't drive so use buses, trains and coaches A LOT - it wouldn't have occurred to me to worry about this when DS has been on school trips, probably because I put him in that very situation myself! I figure the risk is outweighed by the benefits of the trip.

Denj33 · 31/01/2012 13:22

We had an issue with a parent helper in DS yr 3 class, the child was upset and had a bit of a tantrum cos he wanted to climb up the lions(!) outside the National portrait gallery and they wasnt allowed. The mother took her child home but did not tell anyone and there was a huge panic as no one knew where he was ( she was supposed to be with another 2 children, not her own)
Obviously 99.9% of parents would never do that but that's why our school does not have parent helpers anymore

DeWe · 31/01/2012 13:22

As long his name isn't Albert Ramsbottom and he doesn't take his stick with the horses head handle he'll be fine. They'll pay you if the lion does eat him anyway and hope that you'll have other sons to your name.

If they're not taking any parents I'd be surprised if they let one go because they're worried, surely that would make huge resentment in the playground.