AIBU about 6yr old DS on farm

[wombatcheese]

My 6yr old DS went to play at a new school friend's farm this w end. I just know the parents to say hello to.
when my DH picked her up it took him and the other Dad over 10 mins to find the kids in a barn. the Dad "hadn't seen them for a couple of hours". My kid is sensible (-ish), but not used to farms. AIBU to be pretty surprised the parents didn't keep more of an eye on a kid they'd invited round and were responsible for? the kids were fine, having lots of fun. can't decide if I'm being PFB here or not.

No, I did not! Read that post again... I said on farms or not to show that clearly.

You aren't actually following what I have posted. The facts are that, despite any workplace being a dangerous environment for kids, the home is where most children get injured... and yes, for some that will include farms!

The figures are easily available via the NHS, RoSPA, ONS etc.

We were friends with racehorse trainers when I was little, and owned a couple of horses. My dad would take us to the yard every day after school. We just used to disappear for ages, playing the the hay barn and tack rooms, saying hello to the other horses. The freedom was wonderful. It's sad there's so much worry these days.

I would expect a bit more supervision at that age.
Grain stores,chemicals,machinery,rat poison etc etc.

We have farmyard,woods,machinery,fuel stores,river,ponds,rat bait stations,tractors,shoot,etc etc round us.
My dc's are older and don't go out on the wander without a phone and checking in times,and my knowledge of the area they'll be in.

I don't know any farmers who would allow 6 yr olds unsupervised around the yard, that is totally crazy and very dangerous, for their own child and yours. It is spring and the breeding season, a grumpy/horny animal is not safe no matter how well a child knows them not to mention falls/poisoning/drowning etc.
Years ago it was the norm but not now. I wouldn't let him back there again tbh. You say its a hobby type farm, it sounds as if they are fairly new to it and don't realise the dangers themselves or worse complacent and careless. They need to do a farm safety course asap.

Nomama the stats include farm children. Yes more children overall get injured at home than in an actual farms but not in proportion. Modern Farms are very dangerous for young children

We live on a working farm. It is phenomenally dangerous for children. The slurry pit makes me shudder all over if I lose sight of my children for a moment out of the house/garden area. We are very lucky to live where we do and our children get a lot of benefits from this life but we are also acutely aware of the dangers.

Bear, I am not going to continue with the little niggles... to be honest I don't think we are actually disagreeing!

I grew up in city but would stay with relatives on farms in summer - I'm 38.
We would ride on the top of the hay bales as the tractor would bring hay around the farm - trailer with bales stacked 6/7 high. Just holding onto ropes - not secured on in any way. Over bumpy terrain.... Messing with brothers, sisters and cousins.

We built 'dens' in the hay barn - involving digging tunnels by removing bales from the massive stacked pile. Then squeezing ourselves through these tunnels.. Again, there might have been a 20/30 foot drop from the top of the hay onto concrete.

We had a game of running across the slurry pit by jumping from dry bit to dry bit... Loser if this game might be in poo up to their knees or more.

We teased the boar by running up to him and roaring and then thinking it was hilarious when he chased us.

Loads more examples. We were fine but that's no thanks to my relatives.... It was pure luck that nothing serious happened.

I don't ever remember being given any sort of 'safety talk'.

I have three young children now and am constantly worried about safety.

Amber that's terrible. All of those things were strictly banned on our farm, and were drummed into us from about 2.5 onwards. If either my sister or I had been caught doing any of those things it would have been a week's containment indoors as punishment!

depends on the farm tbh, some of them are full of rusting old machinery and slurry pits not fluffy animals.,

Amber I remember doing all of these things (apart from boar teasing which sounds bloody ridiculous tbh) Farms are very dangerous and 6 year olds should not be left unsupervised. Maybe the 'hobby farmers' are very naive.

Feel a bit torn on this one.

I grew up in a rural Welsh sheep farming community although my parents were not farmers. I loved playing out on friends farms. Making dens in the woods, tunnelling through stacks of hay bales, pony riding, feeding lambs, delivering lambs!
I would love for my kids to have that freedom. I don't recall that there was much parental supervision (1970s).

On the other hand we were shown that bloody terrifying public information film at school where 1 by 1 a number of little kids die in horrific ways on a farm (rat poison, fall off a tractor, drown in slurry pit, crushed by falling gate, pulled into hay baler). I can recall it quite clearly to this day.
We absolutely did know what areas were out of bounds- slurry pit, field with bull in it, any machinery at all.

My tendency is to think that we restrict our DC too much these days. It's about risk assessing things and not over-reacting isn't it? Climbing trees and hay bales I don't think there's much wrong with whereas machinery is clearly dangerous. It benefits them a lot in the end to learn safety rules and maybe even make some mistakes rather than just not be allowed to do stuff.

They could probably get in nearly as much trouble on the Internet in their bedroom

mamadoc that would be Apaches. The full thing is on youtube if you fancy reliving the terror! Anglia TV showed it at the start of every summer holiday, or at least it seemed like it, I was absolutely fucking terrified of farm accidents. It did the trick though, we roamed about all Summer but never did any of the things the Apaches did.

mamadoc the public info films should definitely be brought back. I did wonder how we 'just knew' what we could and could not do on the farm... now I realise that we just had more information available to us, even at 6 or 7 years old, than today's kids do.

RocknRollNerd I lived on a farm in East Anglia and remember Apaches... it was terrifying and probably what kept us safe as we roamed the countryside.

Ambers and others experiences were commonplace but the consequences were often tragic. Hay bales themselves can be lethal if they fall. Hence the old public info films and in NI huge government campaigns in schools etc. what is a hobby farm anyway?

Apaches 1977 and yes on YouTube

I think it depends on the farm. I used to live on a large working farm complete with a slurry pit and open topped grain silos and a crazy bull. Loads of machinery in barns. I wouldn't have let a 6yo run round all day there.

mIL lives on a small holding. So lots of fields, some horses, stables, an empty barn, greenhouses, an orchard. I've been happy to let dd and her cousins play out since a young age.

I'd have a thought a hobby farmer is more likely to be the latter type of set up?

Nomama it was horrifying wasn't it. It used to suck you in to watching it as it had that grainy 'Children's Film Foundation' look to it and invariably came on after kids tv...I showed SIL the first 5 mins of it a few years ago and she screamed and refused to watch any more! But yes it absolutely did the trick - no more playing on tractor trailers after watching that!

My sister was terrified of mud for years, RocknRoll If the ground squished, she screamed. She was fearless in most other aspects of rural life.

Even as an adult she hesitates, the fear of the slurry pit still naggles her a bit

Maybe it should resurrected, with a CBeebies feel for modern day kids!!