To think children's development is hampered by excessive fear of paedophiles

[ReallyTired]

Children have far less independence than they used to. Most primary school children do not walk to school by themselves or have opportunities to play out.

I couldn't play out as a kid as we lived on a main road.

Now I live rurally. Literally middle of nowhere.

There are 6 houses, and 8 kids. They have all played out together from ages 3-8. They disappear around 9am and only appear again when they want food, snacks, or chalks to colour the road.

I worry more about tree climbing and slurry pits tbh.

I think its easy to romanticise the old days, but the sheer scale of paedophilia in the 70s and 80s when parents cared far less where their kids were is shocking. Id rather err on the side of caution.

Don't you worry about those things, monkey?

I live rurally and I cannot imagine letting my 3 year old loose.

Not really. They have all been brought up this way. They stick together. They help each other. They are a team.

They also absolutely love it. We just holler them at dusk and they come running from whichever direction. First thing is usually strip naked in the hallway as they are head to toe in mud, bath, hot dinner, then bed.

I can't imagine a life of keeping them indoors.

It isn't how I would do things but can I just say, not letting a three year old out completely unsupervised doesn't mean keeping them indoors for the duration of their lives. Mine are usually outside but with me.

Well, how often do you hear of some sicko grabbing a child playing in a playground? But we hear of pervert teachers nearly every week. Anybody not sending their kids to school because a teacher may be a paedo?

The thing is, you can found about a paedo only after they've committed an offence and been found guilty. You will never know of somebody if they haven't been caught yet...

I think you have a point about the effect of less independence on children. However for me it's less about fear of paedophiles than worries about traffic and the fact that there are so few other kids out and that so few grown ups are around to keep an eye on them.

Do you think we could stop using 'paedo'

ghosty et al

Who says I dismissed it? Of course I followed it up with her. First time in 10 years of teaching that anyone has said something similar. It wasn't an allegation, she just said she'd prefer not to be alone with a teacher in a room, which is fair enough.

I think it might spell the end of one-to-one teaching, that's all.

stop using paedo? why?

'Stop using paedo' is a valid point - not all child abusers are paedophiles, and vice versa.

We should use the term 'child abusers'. Or child sexual abusers.

My dc are 7 and 5 so I haven't reached a point where I worry about this yet. My big issue will be the fact that we have to cross a busy main road to get anywhere and that zebra crossings and red lights don't seem to mean anything to drivers around here

Paedo literally just means 'child' so it's incorrect but more to the point, it turns an extremely serious issue into a casual, offhand slang term.