Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To beg you all ...

19 replies

Justhadenough · 25/07/2012 22:43

to hold on to your DCs hand near a road.
I know this type of thread has been on before but I want to remind everyone. Even if you think it is safe because the road isn't very busy.
I came down a fairly quite road and a little girl (5) ran off the pavement to stroke a cat on the otherside of the road. I had to swerve to avoid her, and the girl and her mum where very upset. Luckily the girl wasn't hurt.
But it could of been so much worse because the road is so quite there, cars speed down the road and there is no way they would of seen her in time.

So please please hold on to your DCs
Thanks

OP posts:
SoleSource · 25/07/2012 22:47

Quite frankly I am shocked at just how many kids almost run into the road. No road awareness at all. A kid almost ran infrint of me today.

WithoutCaution · 25/07/2012 22:50

Do they still do road awareness in school?

Have to say I learned more about road safety on pony days at my local riding school than I did from school

Original poster
Justhadenough · 25/07/2012 22:52

They do road awareness in my DCs school however they do it from 6 years up.

OP posts:
Meglet · 25/07/2012 22:52

I can promise you I am the ratty, shouty mum hanging onto her DC's hands next to roads. Even if they whinge. DS is 5.8 and I still don't let him wander near a busy road, let alone let 3.11yo DD roam freely.

WorraLiberty · 25/07/2012 22:52

YANBU

Holding hands seems to be a thing of the past now

It's been replaced by tearing ahead on a scooter it would seem

If I hear one more parent say, "Oh little Johnny/Katie just refuses to hold my hand", I think I'll fucking scream.

downbythewater · 25/07/2012 22:53

I had a rude awakening the other day when DD scooted ahead of me and I had to grab her as a car was reversing out of a driveway. We walk down that street most days and I've never seen a reversing car before, made me realise how complacent I have been.

kim147 · 25/07/2012 22:56

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Debeez · 25/07/2012 23:14

Still hold my 8 year olds hand sometimes. He know not to run off but as downbythewater said cars coming out of drives can be an issue, no matter how vigilant the driver.

That said a couple of grown men wandered into my path today without looking. My electric car is very quiet but they didn't even glance. Gave the daft buggers the fright of his life with my horn when I was two feet from him.

YANBU, glad everyone is ok and I hope you're not too shook up.

ReindeerBollocks · 25/07/2012 23:20

I knocked over a teenager who ran into the road.

It was a very scary experience by all accounts, and I kept checking up afterwards to see if he was ok. It was completely not my fault, as the police officers and witnesses verified. But even now it haunts me. It was horrid and it took me a while to get back behind the wheel.

It isn't just a toddler thing. Please drum into all of the children, big or small, that they MUST pay attention when near a road. It's something I enforce regularly to my own.

SoleSource · 25/07/2012 23:21

Reindeer x

kotinka · 25/07/2012 23:21

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

ReindeerBollocks · 25/07/2012 23:31

Thanks sole. I was a parent at the time, and had found out on that evening that his mum was an A&E nurse. I was imagining the pain she felt when she realised that it was her son being brought into a&E. I felt so guilty.

He was ok in the end. Didn't break any bones but sustained a cut to the head. I am still cautious when driving near teens/children.

bogeyface · 25/07/2012 23:54

I'll be honest and say that while I totally agree with the OP, little kids arent the problem in the main. I live near four schools. Three primaries and a senior. I can drive around the primaries with no problems (obviously keeping my eyes open) but around the senior school is a nightmare. Kids walking in crowds so half of them are in the road, on a blind bend and them not even acknowledging there is a car, never mind trying to get off the road. Some kid messing about and nicking another kids back and just legging it across the road. Flying out of the entrance on a bike, straight into the road. Hurling abuse and stones etc at the car when I wound down my window and said that I almost hit them, so stay on the pavement..... the list goes on. And this is in an apparantly "naice" area Hmm

My G.P.'s daughter and her best friend were both killed when they were messing about on the way home :(

Teenagers are far more likely to be killed by a car than a toddler or an elderly person. I can hold my smaller childrens hands, but all I can do with my teenager is drum it into her and hope :(

Original poster
Justhadenough · 26/07/2012 00:13

ReindeerBollocks That must of been awful, I am very sorry you had to deal with that - xxx

OP posts:
TooManyDaisies · 26/07/2012 03:36

I also knocked a teenager down. She just ran out, I hit her and it happened so fast. Thankfully she was ok - severe bruising but ok. And lots of other drivers and passers by gave me their details and said they could see I hadn't done anything wrong (20mph in a 30 zone).

I sat on the curb with her while we waited for her Mum. Neither of us could stop apologising. She didn't know why she had run out, she just wasn't thinking. We ended up agreeing it had been a good thing because she wasn't badly hurt and she'd NEVER do it again. (think we were both in shock...)

Children racing ahead past driveways freak me out. I hate it. I never ever let my child do it or her friends if they're with me.

TooManyDaisies · 26/07/2012 03:41

ps (and one I'm not proud of)
Just before I hit this girl ;maybe a minute earlier) I thought about sending a quick text. But realised I didn't have my phone with me.

THANK GOD!!! If I had been distracted by my phone I could have killed her. Quite aside from the fact that I would probably have gone to prison, I could have killed her. That haunts me. If I'd been looking at my phone I wouldn't have breaked at all. As it was I managed to slam the breaks on a few seconds before I hit her - that made the difference between hitting her with the front of the car or clipping her with the corner of the car (which is what happened).

TooManyDaisies · 26/07/2012 03:53

Oh, and YANBU!

MonaLotte · 26/07/2012 04:02

Another one who has a vice like grip on dc hands beside the road. Drumming road safety into ds1 (4) now. Hopefully it will sink in.

DozyDuck · 26/07/2012 06:33

I have a harness for DS (6, ASD) because he can get away from holding hands. But he can also get out of the harness or escape out of the car etc etc and run onto the road. So as well as keeping your children's hands held, please don't speed, play on your phone or sat nav while driving and if you see any child just make sure you're keeping an eye on what they're doing too.

DS was nearly ran over once, I put him in the back of the car with childlocks, strapped him in, walked to the front and in that time he had unclipped himself and climbed to the front and was escaping out of passenger door. It was a tesco car park where speed limit is 5mph for a reason, he ran across a zebra crossing (by accident) before I could get to him and a car doing clearly over speed limit with driver on phone not paying attention didn't see him until I screamed and jumped in front of the car.

Luckily he didn't get hit. Sometimes kids escape no matter how careful you are and some kids can't learn road safety

New posts on this thread. Refresh page