AIBU to let them camp on an island overnight?

[chomalungma]

(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?

I don't know why you're bothering to ask Mumsnet - you know these children have been planning to run away to this island for months already? Ever since it started to become clear that their Parent's small plane had been lost as their Father flew the two of them home from Africa, and their evil Aunt and Uncle (whose Farm they had been staying on whilst their Parents were away) would slap the girls if they couldn't get the pots to shine, or if their brother was late finishing milking the cows he was sent to bed without supper...?

They have been storing as much food as they can in a hollow tree, down by the edge of the lake, and along with the orphan boy who lives on the Farm next door with his elderly Grandfather they're planning to row across to The Secret Island, under cover of night, where they will start a new life, just the 4 of them; Peggy, Nora, Jack and Mike.

I would totally let the 4 of them go, mainly cos I know what happens and that they'll all be fine in the end, but 1938 in Enid Blyton's neck of the woods was very different to the world we live in today!

err. Betsy have you read the thread? This is nothing to do with Enid Blyton's neck of the woods.

@BetsyBigNose

Read the thread. Even if only 4 posts down on page 1 where the exact book is named.

Yep, I’ve read the thread - and Swallows and Amazons too! The children rowing off to an island is also the same storyline as The Secret Island by Enid Blyton, nowhere did I see anything saying I wasn’t allowed to join in with my own reference. Secret Island was my first thought when I read the OP, shortly followed by S&A, but everyone has been talking about the latter the whole thread, so I thought I’d add something a bit different, but still relevant - or so I thought... Apologies if I’ve misjudged the tone, I thought it was supposed to be a bit of fun!

I don't think the Secret Island was meant to be in the Lakes though.

I think the Walkers would have had RP accents, but not the Amazons. Their accents wouldn't have been as strong as the "natives" but they would have picked some pronunciations up. And I would expect it to be lost over the term time, and repicked up again during the holidays. In the same way when I go back to my parents I go back to northern pronunciations and when I come back down south, I lose it again.

That’s called code switching @Witchend as I said upthread. But it’s really unlikely that they would have spoken anything but RP. I went to a day school in the NE in the 1960s which was a prep for some nice girls’ public schools (one of my best friends in the first form was the daughter of a duke). We all spoke pretty much like the Royal Family, even though the housekeeper at home spoke broad Geordie.

Don't know how I missed this thread till now! My favourite children's books. I read my Dad's wartime copy of Missee Lee first when I was 7. There was a lot I didn't understand but I was entranced and got all the others from the library. Re-read all of them many times since. Hard to pick a favourite. My least favourite is and always was Peter Duck. It may be because of the crabs, which make me shudder.

My favourite characters are Dick, Dorothea and Titty.

We all know Arthur Ransome married Trotsky's secretary, don't we? He got her out of Russia during the Revolution. I always wondered how well she settled in the Lakes.

@CatandtheFiddle I was at a day/boarding school in the NW. My parents are from the midlands and don't have a northern accent at all, even now after living there nearly 60 years. I still picked up a northern accent, and the only place it could have been was from school, as we did very little outside school. RP was definitely not the norm-in fact would probably have been laughed at. That was the 80s though.

@BetsyBigNose I don't think you need to apologise! Yes a lot of the thread is about S&A but Blyton and CS Lewis have had mentions, and Buchanan (and Mornington Crescent got played...)

I read a few Malory Towers (secretly because my parents didn't like Blyton) but none of her other books so I am not family with the Secret Isle but it sounds like it would have a similar AIBU response. And I imagine a lot of the discussion about school options and accents is as applicable to Blyton as Ransome or Lewis.

The children rowing off to an island is also the same storyline as The Secret Island by Enid Blyton,

Rowed? Sailing is completely different!

(Ok, so maybe they had to row at times, but not afaik to Wildcat Island)

(and Mornington Crescent got played...)

Can we use the past tense when it's still mid-game? - stuck at KelvinBridge iirc.

Abbey Wood - Crossrail amendment (2029)

It's very strange for me to see Jasperrising and Betsybignose conversing on this thread. They are the names of two of my DC's. Obviously their names are Rising and BigNose*. And so to London Bridge.

Obviously their names are Rising and BigNose

I think they might have code-switched, but in the 1920s if you were middle class and at boarding school, you’d have spoken with an RP accent.

Maybe, maybe not. There is some interesting stuff about the BBC starting to broadcast and having to choose a single accent that most people would understand.

Back to the game Euston

Euston??? That's a bit risky, isn't it?

I will go to Maida Vale With the lovely twins Rising and BigNose.

I like the odd risk.