To let my 15 ds get a train from Birmingham uni to Birmingham New Street then Euston Station on the train on his own?

[Owlbabie5]

Dp and Ds insisting he’ll be fine. I’m feeling twitchy. He has never been to Birmingham. We’d pick him up at Euston.

“not keen on him getting the underground to Heathrow alone”

Why not?

He is 15 not 5.

but not keen on him getting the underground to Heathrow alone
He is 15 years old! Not 7 years old. Kids ride the trains alone in NYC from around 12 upwards. He is 15! That is leaving school minimum age. At his age he could be entering an apprenticeship or employment. I just....
Wow.

I've heard of helicopter parenting, but this way beyond that. The disservice some are doing to their teenagers by babying them and holding them back developmentally is going to have a detrimental affect.

It’s one change on the tube.

Great but he hasn’t had training from us and catching trains in Devon is a world away from catching the underground in London after two previous connections. Not keen on dropping him in the deep end the night before air port strikes and sfter a train journey with 2 connections. He hasn’t grown up in the city and could happily find his way from one side of Dartmoor to the next if dropped alone at 8.30 pm. The underground when tired and it’s getting late not so much. We’re in the vicinity so not a problem picking him up.

@SaraNade It's not just NYC. Kids growing up in London (like I did, and my children are) use the tube independently from the age of 11, when many of them travel to school by tube.

The idea that a 15-year-old can't travel a few stops by tube without needing daddy to hold his hand is just as bizarre to us as it is to you.

(Wonders what the response would have been if OP had suggested she drop her 15 yr old at edge of Dartmoor & was leaving him to get to the other side alone.)

OP your plan sounds sensible.

Omg. I do not believe what I am reading on this thread. I just.. It doesn't matter if it is the final station or not
It does. Trains are usually called 'the Glasgow train' or 'the Euston train'. They are never called 'the Little Piddlington train' although they might be called 'the Euston train, calling at Little Piddlington'.
When I was young, buses used to go from suburb A, into the city centre and then on to suburb B. I moved cities and it took a while to get used to the idea of a bus that went from A to town then back to A again. (I was younger than 15 though). Something like that could throw OP's DS if he's not used to it.
University station has an up line and a down line. New Street has all sorts of through trains going in all sorts of directions. Euston ends in buffers, there is no through traffic.

There’s a uni station? Wow, I was a student in 1975, happy memories

@StillCoughingandLaughing Well if Bumbling has to ask if Euston is the last stop, she probably hasn’t been to Euston, but that’s not the same as never having been to London. She might have travelled into St Pancras, Waterloo, Paddington; she might have driven or travelled by coach. It’s a weird assumption. There’s no ‘of course’ about Euston being the final stop if you haven’t been there!

But all of the London termini are... you know... termini. The clue is in the name.

Any intercity train is only going to stop at one of those (even if it stops at e.g. Clapham Junction or Watford on the way in).

The ease of getting to b'ham uni by train was one of the reasons I chose it.

Hard to believe they demolished the library but the Muirhead survives...

Wonders what the response would have been if OP had suggested she drop her 15 yr old at edge of Dartmoor & was leaving him to get to the other side alone

Maybe, this being MN, that he might as well lead a few other teens across and get a DofE expedition out of the way?

There’s a uni station? Wow, I was a student in 1975, happy memories

It was there in 78 when I went for interview, hadn't it always been there?

Any intercity train is only going to stop at one of those
That's a London thing. Other cities are different. It's those sort of location-specific assumptions that are likely to trip up a young lad who doesn't know any better

Yes feel free to dump your kid at 8.30pm out of their comfort zone on Dartmoor or the middle of the sea and leave him to fend for himself.

Really don’t see the need for parenting sneering. We far from helicopter. Said ds is pretty hardy, travels to a city daily for school, travels from one city to another when needed in our county,has a job in a care home, is taking on a volunteer role and has done well to get on said camp through sheer hard work he did off his own back.

Enquiring as to what a journey is like so we can make a parenting decision hardly warrants the sneering and bragging re what other kids do.

Haha. I am 54 and have travelled across
Europe by train from a young age I grew up in London travelling by tube and bus and train from the age of about 11/12 but I still get a bit confused re which train to get if I can't easily see my destination on the screens
I did NOT say the OPs son wouldn't be able to to do it. In fact I specifically said he would be fine, just that an app is particularly useful. It has certainly helped me not get so confused when looking at train platforms on overhead screens.
As to Euston being the last destination I can see now from my post that it might seem I didn't know it was the.last one -in fact I do,.I was just trying to say that an app is helpful. I have only just started using one myself so I may be overly enthusiastic I suppose but it has made my train journeys smoother so.just thought I'd share that. Not sure what is so depressing about it

Said ds is pretty hardy, travels to a city daily for school, travels from one city to another when needed in our county

In which case he really can make a very very simple tube journey in the early evening, with one change, can't he?

I don't understand all of the helicopter parenting comments and sentiments. Sure, some children do this kind of journey all the time, some don't. For whatever reason. Being snidey and superior because your kid can and has used public transport for ever, doesn't mean all can. The way some kids can climb a climbing wall and others can't. The way some can play the fucking bassoon to grade 8 and some can't. Or the way that some adults can use their imagine and others can't.

No not when tired, I’m not happy and there is no need. Happy to start him off doing it alone at a different time of day when he isn’t tired at a later date.

@DonPablo the OP has said nothing at all, over multiple posts, to suggest that her son has any additional needs that would make this journey unusually difficult for him compared to most 15-year-olds.

I'm sure the responses would have been different if she said he has additional needs or is not nt.

I don’t want him to on this occasion, simple as that. Doesn’t mean we helicopter.

And we certainly aren’t holding him back developmentally. He’s pretty good in most situations and can cope with more than most kids his age.

I’m simply not happy on this occasion, my call and not going to stunt his development for ever.

Ignore the sneerers Owlbabie5. I wouldn't expect my 15 year to go on a tube by herself in London either simply because she hasn't done it before. It is different for children that live in London.

ITA, OP. You know your DS, you know better than randoms on the net what he (and you) are comfortable with. I'd have been on the page of new st to Bham uni ok but London Underground not yet for my DD.

FWIW I grew up in a city nearish to Birmingham and was catching the train into new street every Saturday from about 13/14. But that was the old station - very easy to navigate. Sounds like the new one is a bit more complex than one corridor which all the lines run perp to?

But I understand it’s about familiarity and can understand your hesitancy. The people in Brum are very friendly and I’m sure he’ll be fine.