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AIBU?

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Original poster

4 year old left on the bus

443 replies

Huskylover1 · 15/12/2017 20:22

Just heard about this on the news.

A 4 year old boy, gets the bus home from school. He misses his stop. Doesn't alert the driver. Driver gets back to the depot and parks up the bus and leaves. Bus driver has now been sacked for this.

In my book, a 4 year old, is way too young to get the bus home. Especially as there was no parent waiting at the bus stop even! Had there been, the parent would have alerted the bus driver that their son was on board, and needed to get off. Usually, this boy makes his own way home from the bus stop, lets himself in, and his parents arrive home from work, shortly thereafter.

Cue lots of moaning by the parents, that they've been let down. No mention from anyone, that perhaps this little boy shouldn't be making this journey alone.

I just can't fathom, how any parent can thinks it's good judgement to let a 4 year old:

  • identify the right school bus to get on
  • realise when he needs to get off
  • walk from the bus stop to home, and let himself in

Bonkers!

OP posts:
ButchyRestingFace · 16/12/2017 00:32

Yes. And the collective noun for more than 1 flat is a block. Even "cottage flats". more than 1 is a block.

Where I live, they would be called a "four in a block". I don't think I've heard anyone describe such as an arrangement as a "block of flats" without that essential qualification.

Seeingadistance · 16/12/2017 00:45

Yes, four in a blocks are pretty common throughout Scotland in cities, towns, villages and tiny hamlets.

Every flat has its own front door which leads directly to the outside.

rainbowunicorn · 16/12/2017 00:58

I am amazed that so many people on hear seem incapable of reading a news report and understanding it. There really are some horrible people on this thread who seem to just be looking for an argument. Not surprising. You will often see the same people on different threads just out to goad others. Pathetic behaviour.

Gwenhwyfar · 16/12/2017 01:03

"But if you google the definition of "block of flats" it's a large building divided into apartments. I lived in a flat, but I didn't live in a large building building divided into apartments. I lived in a different sort of flat."

Yep. I live in a house converted into 3 flats. It's not a block of flats.

TooManyPaws · 16/12/2017 01:16

To me, 'a block of flats' would mean a multi whereas far more people throughout Scotland live in a four in a block. Often, if you didn't look for the second door at the side or wherever, you'd think you were looking at two semi-detached houses.

In the village where my parents lived, there was both a primary school and a high school but the high school had children bussed in from over thirty miles up the valley - there were even emergency bunks in case they couldn't get home for the weather. Even for the primary, children would come in from farms and hamlets and smaller villages round about, very often bussed in. Even the post office land rover doubled as a bus. It's very obvious that a lot of people on this thread have absolutely no idea of what rural areas are like, particularly in sparsely populated areas of Scotland.

Mumof56 · 16/12/2017 01:22

it's a bit odd what things some people think are exclusive to Scotland. I can assure you none of these things are.

Gwenhwyfar · 16/12/2017 01:30

I've never heard of four in a blocks, but if they're flats in houses, then I get what they are.
They used to use the post van as a bus in mid Wales as well. I think it's finished now though.

RoseWhiteTips · 16/12/2017 01:39

The news is available in order to establish the facts as known. Read them. Digest them. Then there will be no excuse for making things up. Hmm

TooManyPaws · 16/12/2017 01:42

Did anyone say anything was exclusive to Scotland or is this a further lack of comprehension and running away from the facts?

meandthem · 16/12/2017 01:46

Whoever posted the McCann reference - can't even be bothered to look up your name - you are beyond contempt. Try reflecting on what you posted then hang your head in shame .....

AnUtterIdiot · 16/12/2017 01:48

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

pisacake · 16/12/2017 02:09

"Yes. And the collective noun for more than 1 flat is a block."

what has that got to do with your comment earlier?

"It's a block of flats. How does that work?"

it works in the same way as a house. It's not a tower block.

fastfrank · 16/12/2017 06:00

You lot are too busy splitting hairs to notice that @pisacake actually shared the recording which categorically proves the OP is full of shit.

Also, @Mumof56, you've had enough internet for the day. Pretty much just chatting argumentative bollocks at this point. We should be allowed to confiscate the Internet from people this fucking irritating. Kind of like how pubs can't serve drunk folk.

EvilDoctorBallerinaRoastDuck · 16/12/2017 06:07

Butchy I lived in Glasgow for 12 years and still say "house" when I mean "flat". It's perfectly normal dialect, isn't it? Xmas Smile

EvilDoctorBallerinaRoastDuck · 16/12/2017 06:16

Gwen I live in a house converted into 3 flats too. I wouldn't call it a block.

FarAwayFromLand · 16/12/2017 06:19

I grew up in a semi-rural area and got the bus to nursery aged 3 and the to school from 4.5. It was supervised by adults who knew what bus each child should be on. Although there were parents at the bus stops in the larger villages where 2/3 kids got out, a lot of the 'stops' were actually at the end of a driveway or street where the children lived. It was a totally bespoke service depending on where children were located. It literally took them home.

I can't be outraged about the bus system, it's a necessity. I do feel sick with worry when I think about my own son being lost like that.

ButchyRestingFace · 16/12/2017 06:33

You lot are too busy splitting hairs to notice that @pisacake* actually shared the recording* which categorically proves the OP is full of shit.

You speak about “you lot” as if everyone on this thread is in agreement with the OP. That is FAR from the case.

And the recording has been alluded to.

Feckitall · 16/12/2017 06:50

mumof56
Sorry...not full explanation...we were last drop off and bus couldn't get in the lane...i was always at the house...The drop off sometimes could be a lot quicker than expected if few kids that day...they eventually switched to taxis

ButchyRestingFace · 16/12/2017 06:54

Butchy I lived in Glasgow for 12 years and still say "house" when I mean "flat". It's perfectly normal dialect, isn't it?

I think so. I say ”do you want to come to my house?” when I mean flat.

And whilst I would say refer to a “four in the block”, I’d never say “I live in a block of flats” to describe either that arrangement or those of the Edinburgh colony flats.

bookworm14 · 16/12/2017 07:00

Good grief - mumsnet is like another planet sometimes.

I can’t comment on the specifics of this story, but it is absolutely normal for young children to travel to school by bus. I did myself from the age of 4 - this was rural England, by the way, not Scotland. Buses were coaches hired by the school, not public buses.

Some of you really need to muster the imagination to realise that other people live differently from you.

coconuttella · 16/12/2017 07:10

My children went on a school operated minibus to school from age of 4. They were supervised by an adult at times. This was in England!

famousfour · 16/12/2017 07:28

Go ash this thread is quite worrying. I almost hope that people are deliberately looking for something to froth about rather than displaying their actual critical thinking skills because otherwise this is worrying...Hmm. A difference of opinion is one thing - sheer misinformation and the ability to fling mud about based on that is complete another.

LunasSpectreSpecs · 16/12/2017 07:30

Imo a child of 4 should not be getting a bus and walking home alone after that, no matter whether he's in a large city or small rural area. It's just too young.

Fine - your opnion. But what's the alternative? If you are living somewhere rural like the Black Isle and don't drive, or you only have one car and the other parent uses it to get to work, how do you manage the trip? In this case, it's 5 miles from this child's home to his primary school, along roads with no pavements. Without using the dedicated bus, how are you getting your child to school? Walk? 10 mile round trip in the morning and then another 10 mile round trip at 3pm?

The bus driver has been sacked. He was clearly negligent not knowing who he had to drop off where and making sure that happened. But there are thousands of small children getting buses to school all over the UK every day.

mathanxiety · 16/12/2017 07:38

Seems many people didn't read the article.

It was a mini bus chartered as a school bus.
The child normally went by car but car broke down.
Child was on the mini bus for the fifth time along with other children.
Child had been dropped off at his home previous days as the other children were dropped off at their homes, and his parents were there.
He was not a 4 yo latchkey kid.
Child fell asleep on bus this time, or somehow missed his stop/driver clearly had no list of stops or didn't refer to it. Maybe didn't even go past child's house or father might have seen him drive past.
Slept on until he awoke and found himself parked at the depot.
No sign of the driver, who had not checked the bus before leaving it.
Child left the bus and walked across main road to a stadium, attempting to find his own way home.
Parents made numerous calls trying to figure out where the boy was, including two to the bus company and one to police; boy was found.

Children go by bus to school all over rural Ireland. All my cousins in a certain part of the country go to secondary school on the bus. They stand at a crossroads 2 miles from home and wait for it. The school has a wide catchment and is miles from where they live.

Free bus transport in rural areas was part of Ireland's massive education overhaul in the 60s. Children as young as 4 get the bus to and from school.

In the US, many school districts provide buses to ferry children to school. My own local districts ferry all special ed children to school and home again every day. They are dropped off at their doors. Everyone else has to get there under their own steam.

There are stories two or three times a year in various cities and suburbs of children falling asleep and being forgotten by negligent drivers. Sometimes special ed kids too.

Bowerbird5 · 16/12/2017 07:38

I haven't read the whole thread just page one. Not sure how it got onto flats but I once lived in a block of four flats. Not in a house but a small block. There are several in Inverness on a housing estate. Didn't read connection but family on the Black Isle which is rural.

The Highlands are very rural in parts and the kids get on the bus at that age. My children lived in a village where the school had been closed years before and were bused to the next village where there was a large primary 175 plus because of the forces. I took my eldest son the first day in the car but the next morning he was adamant that he wanted to go on the bus with the other kids. He was four. I found it difficult the first week but he was happy catching it and there was several four year olds. It wasn't just a school bus either. I met him at the bus stop because at 3pm it was dark. Our village children were let out of school earlier than the rest because it would be too dark for them to walk home when they got off the bus.
It will be difficult for some people to comprehend the life in the Highlands but the children are very independent from a young age. Some of them were sailing small yachts at eight! Independently.
The bus driver should have checked the bus before leaving. I know that area well and the road nearby is very busy. You would wonder why drivers didn't stop or notify police when he was near that road. The Kessock Bridge is a beautiful but long bridge it was lucky he didn't reach that. There used to be someone at the bridge but I am not sure if that is still the case. It was to prevent jumpers. I saw one once when the police were picking them up.
Poor little boy no wonder he is shaken up. Please don't blame the parents it is quite normal up there for children to be on a bus at four. Just because you haven't experienced it doesn't mean it was wrong to put him on the bus. You would have to live there to understand that it is quite a different way of life.