To think a 17 year old can get the bus home?

[makeupbag]

My mum has an appointment tomorrow at the time she would normally be picking my brother up from school. This afternoon she has asked me, his older sister, to pick him up in my car. Normally I would be happy to do this, but tomorrow I have plans that I would have to cancel to pick up my brother. I've said that at 17 he should be capable of walking down the hill for 15 minutes to the bus stop for a 10 minute bus journey that will drop him literally outside our house. My mum disagrees, saying it would be fine if he was used to it, but he's only done it once or twice before. Who is being unreasonable?

My ds 17 recently took a bus to visit a friend in a city, stayed a night then got 2 trains and a bus home.

He looked up the timetables and paid for it himself with money from his part time job.

He's off to uni in a few months so I'm glad he is able to sort himself out.

My Aunt age 10 got on many trains on her own from one end of the Country to the other on her own to get home.

She had to jump off with everyone else and hide every time there was a bomb warning.

This was at the end of the war.

She hated where she had been evacutaed to so just ran away and made her way home alone 100's of miles.

Daft as it sounds I know a 17 year old who has never travelled independently on public transport and has only waked a very short distance from her house with no SN.

@makeupbag what happened at home time?

DD 10's walking the 20 minutes home today. A 17yo unable to take the bus just baffles me.

@TemptressofWaikiki your argument was going so well until the last comment

If he's got a broken toe, that IS a bit different.

I had one, it was painful and made walking very slow and difficult for quite a while. I certainly would/could not walk any distance until it was a lot better.

I suppose if the bus isn't door to door.

When my son started senior school at 13 we meant to practice the train journey during the holidays - obviously we were so into holiday mode that we forgot! - took him to the station on the first day of term and just told him to follow the boys in the same uniform to work out how to get to school at the other end - he made it!. By 17 he was flying to meet froiends in other countries by himself with no input from me - encourage them to be independent

Does he have SEN? If not then it’s ridiculous? My 14 yr old DS is confident with bus journeys now to go to friends’ - I can’t always be around to ferry him about. My 15 yr old will go most places on her own on public transport - if it’s complicated I’ll lend a hand in the planning - but otherwise she’s totally independent.

JustDanceAddict "Does he have SEN?"

No. The OP said in her second post "No additional needs"

Insomniac then it’s ridix! Far too much mollycoddling, lazy kids about.

This is insane. Unless there's some huge issue you haven't told us about, he can totally get a bus.

Honestly, I despair at how poorly some parents are preparing their children to meet the rigours of the adult world.