Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to let them camp on an island overnight?

668 replies

chomalungma · 01/08/2020 18:01

(Inspired by another thread)

We are on holiday in the Lake District. Lovely cottage. DH is working away. DC's have seen a lovely island and want to go camping there for a few nights. Light a campfire, cook for themselves. They'll get there by sailing boat. Youngest is 6 and oldest is 14.

Would you let them go?

OP posts:
ineedaholidaynow · 01/08/2020 21:05

@itsgettingweird you should Smile

GreatAuntMaria · 01/08/2020 21:16

Fadedpage is a Canadian website which has free digital copies of books that are out of copyright in Canada. It has all the S & A books. AR isn't out of copyright in the UK, or out of print, so of course I'm not suggesting that anyone in the UK should go there and download any of his books....

amicissimma · 01/08/2020 21:16

The youngest is seven. It's the very first line of the book.

Makes all the difference.

ChessieFL · 01/08/2020 21:21

@1point21gigawatts @JasperRising Julian Fellowes (who wrote Downton Abbey) is in Coot Club as the head Hullaballoo!

ineedaholidaynow · 01/08/2020 21:25

@GreatAuntMaria just looked at the website, do you think it is a coincidence that it shows Swallows and Amazons as a recently downloaded book!

Awkwarddough · 01/08/2020 21:28

Why not just let them camp and light fires and cook for themselves in your back garden! Or on an actual campsite?

SixesAndEights · 01/08/2020 21:33

Have read a fanfic on Ao3 by Sandpipersummer about Titty after the war, and Nancy and Timothy are married with a daughter!

Angrymum22 · 01/08/2020 21:33

We spent yesterday swimming in Coniston a few hundred yards from Wild Cat Island. I spent most of my summers sailing and swimming there. The island, back in the mid seventies, was exactly as A Ransome described it.
Tomorrow we are going to our secret wild swimming spot.

GreatAuntMaria · 01/08/2020 21:34

do you think it is a coincidence that it shows Swallows and Amazons as a recently downloaded book!

Someone was quite quick off the mark, if it isn't a coincidence! Smile

There's a lot of good stuff there, all the Peter Wimsey books, for example.

...and ten pages in, and there are still people posting who haven't RTFT!

PablosHoney · 01/08/2020 21:46

Heaven forfend 🤯

CaptainNancy · 01/08/2020 21:49

I'm actually rereading S&A this evening Smile

HyacynthBucket · 01/08/2020 21:51

Haven't read all 10 pages of this thread, but is this a wind-up? Whose island is it? They might have a view about random people turning up and lighting fires, camping etc.

JasperRising · 01/08/2020 21:51

Nancy and Timothy are married with a daughter!

Surely not! In my head he is old. Ok maybe 3Os/40s (seemed very old as a child reading the books!) But definitely not the right age to be marrying Nancy. Surely she would have been a Wren in the war or joined SOE or something and have a terribly adventurous life where knowledge of codes was essential!

ineedaholidaynow · 01/08/2020 21:52

@HyacynthBucket I think you need to read some of the thread!

JulyBreeze · 01/08/2020 21:58

Thanks for this @chomalungma ! What was the thread that inspired it, I must have missed that one? 😀

MereDintofPandiculation · 01/08/2020 22:07

Makes me want to read the books I prefer them to the Famous Five. Anne in the Famous Five appeared to be interesting only in "keeping house" whereas the other girl, George, used a boy's name, cut her hair unnaturally short for the time, and generally acted as a boy. Nowadays it's perhaps regarded as a portrayal of gender dysphoria, but that concept wasn't well known at the time it was written. The analogous girl in S&A (Titty) wasn't in the least bit interested in house-keeping, was intelligent and creative, took a full part in events, but was unquestionably a girl. As were the the "Amazons" who had their separate boat and pretended to be pirates. As a girl who was into toy cars, trains, chemistry sets, and definitely not into dolls, I could identify with S&A, and it reaffirmed my feeling that I didn't have to do exclusively "girly" things to be a girl.

Gobbycop · 01/08/2020 22:10

How switched on is the 14 year old?

ineedaholidaynow · 01/08/2020 22:16

@Gobbycop He has been known to sink the boat, and also didn't mean to go to sea (with the rest of the children and no adults) in a borrowed yacht and end up in the Netherlands

MrsWombat · 01/08/2020 22:20

@GreatAuntMaria I'm sure the CANANDIAN mumsnetters will thank you for that very useful link.

Arthersleep · 01/08/2020 22:24

@womanaf

Grin
DotForShort · 01/08/2020 22:24

This thread is an excellent example of the perennial MN problem of people not reading the full thread. The horrified replies that the OP could even contemplate such a thing! Grin

Otherwise, a lovely thread. Feeling quite nostalgic about beloved books from childhood.

bettsbattenburg · 01/08/2020 22:25

@HyacynthBucket

Haven't read all 10 pages of this thread, but is this a wind-up? Whose island is it? They might have a view about random people turning up and lighting fires, camping etc.
It's Nancy's island, she's quite ruthless really so your caution is to be applauded.
PablosHoney · 01/08/2020 22:34

It’s not really a lovely thread though is it, want to talk about a beloved childhood book? then do so openly on a chat thread but this actual thread is peppered with ‘embarrassment for those who don’t get it’ ‘illiterate fools’ general smuggery and that fecking duffers quote ad infinitum. Yes people took an AIBU at face value 😱😱 and..

DappledThings · 01/08/2020 22:38

@PablosHoney

It’s not really a lovely thread though is it, want to talk about a beloved childhood book? then do so openly on a chat thread but this actual thread is peppered with ‘embarrassment for those who don’t get it’ ‘illiterate fools’ general smuggery and that fecking duffers quote ad infinitum. Yes people took an AIBU at face value 😱😱 and..
4 replies on the first page alone call it as a thread based on the book in question. If someone can't even be bothered taking a few seconds to skim the first page and just go diving in based on the OP alone then that's really their look out.
elephantoverthehill · 01/08/2020 22:41

PablosHoney ok you seem to be a bit pissed off, but the premise of the book is quite a good AIBU.