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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:
LesLavandes · 01/08/2020 20:21

Just NO

Councilworker · 01/08/2020 20:22

An island is fine but just be careful if you go to Norfolk and they want to spend time with a chap called Jim Brading.

FlamedToACrisp · 01/08/2020 20:22

@saleorbouy

ineedaholidaynow* Yoghurt pots and string were the height of adventure comms in my day. Who needs to be always contactable anyway, we managed well before mobile phones ruined any chance of undivided attention and tranquility.
How could anyone write these kind of stories now? Forest fire? Tide creeping in? So Titty whips out her mobile phone, and... nah. It just wouldn't work!
ineedaholidaynow · 01/08/2020 20:23

Maybe there are some duffers on this thread and it would be best they avoid sailing to an island

GreatAuntMaria · 01/08/2020 20:25

Never mind camping in the Lake District, what do you do about the loo when you have to spend the night in a hut on an Alpine mountain because you've been caught in a storm?

HarveySchlumpfenburger · 01/08/2020 20:25

@CatandtheFiddle

Don’t let them go to sea though.

We didn’t mean to go to sea.

Yeah, sure you didn’t.
PablosHoney · 01/08/2020 20:26

This reply has been deleted

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Sadik · 01/08/2020 20:29

"How could anyone write these kind of stories now? Forest fire? Tide creeping in? So Titty whips out her mobile phone, and... " no signal! Certainly the case in most of the little bays & a lot of other places around here.

backinthebox · 01/08/2020 20:30

@Strawberrypancakes You’re joking right? A six year old? Around open water, unknown woods, fire and god knows what else?

I think the actions of a well-known and well-loved fiction set of characters from a famous series of books set in a different age is absolutely fine. I pity anyone who has not had the pleasure of reading these books.

As for my own children and our adventures, they are unlikely to have them on their own because I am having too much fun on these adventures with them. We ended up using several parts of our emergency equipment this week, but it was OK because we had practiced using them before setting off. Children are not allowed enough exposure to mild risk and decision making these days to be able to have fun where there is fun to be had. I took my kids up into the wild this week and spent 3 days travelling in it. My 9 year old can use a compass, give a grid reference from an OS map, use What 3 Words, owns and can use a variety of penknives, can light a fire with flint and steel, search for water in the wild (we use a Life Straw to drink it from,) and his biggest disappointment this week is that we stayed in B&Bs instead of sleeping under a hedge in a sleeping bag!

elephantoverthehill · 01/08/2020 20:31

PablosHoney a bit harsh!

crumpet · 01/08/2020 20:32

Got to the thread too late - everyone has referenced the Duffers 😄

Original poster
chomalungma · 01/08/2020 20:32

My 9 year old can use a compass, give a grid reference from an OS map, use What 3 Words, owns and can use a variety of penknives, can light a fire with flint and steel, search for water in the wil

Night sailing is a lot easier with a mobile phone compared to tacking every few minutes.

OP posts:
CaptainNancy · 01/08/2020 20:36

backinthebox what was your fantasy adventure? Based on S&A or another book?

PablosHoney · 01/08/2020 20:36

Illiterate is a bit harsh!

bettsbattenburg · 01/08/2020 20:36

@MsTSwift

As long as Uncle Quentin is within 10 miles should be ok
I think he's busy in his study down in distant Dorset with a whole other bunch of children but who knows, a combination book could be interesting.
ListeningQuietly · 01/08/2020 20:40

My kids were 7 and 9 when we went to the lake district for the first time
Peel Island was one of the highlights

BUT
Ransome was writing from experience
kids WERE allowed freedom then
its sad that they are so swaddled now
mine have been casting metal over an open fire today, as you do

JasperRising · 01/08/2020 20:41

@1point21gigawatts there are TV adaptations of Coot Club and The Big Six???

I quite liked the Big Six but otherwise I only liked ones that featured the Amazons. I loved Nancy and never understood why the Swallows always won the races etc... Winter Holiday is probably my favourite book.

Had no idea Coots in the North was so rare and expensive! I have a copy - it's just an ordinary small paperback, I think with some short stories as well.

I have rowed out to the island, gone into the secret harbour and swim around. Think I have all the credentials to be an Amazon! (I can also sail which helps)

Bumpsadaisie · 01/08/2020 20:43

Only let them go if they have got leading lights set up on trees for night sailing. Otherwise they will hole the boat on the approach to the harbour.

Tell the little one not to slide down too many smooth rocks. He will get a hole in his shorts if he does.

[very excitingly I think we have located the real knickerbocker breaker - at one of our fave picnic spots on coniston).

Seriously though I was swimming in buttermere yesterday (with no feet on the bottom) and even though it was scorching weather the water was absolutely bloody freezing. Those kids in the 20s were toughies.

AlecOrAlonzo · 01/08/2020 20:50

BETTER DROWNED THAN DUFFERS IF NOT DUFFERS THEN WONT DROWN

CaptainNancy · 01/08/2020 20:50

Buttermere is smaller and shallower, so I dread to think how cold Coniston Water is! Maybe it gets more sun on it though?

starfishmummy · 01/08/2020 20:50

No of course not.

You should however leave them alone in a sea going yacht so they can sail to Holland in the fog by mistake.
Or send them on a world cruise with their friend's dodgy uncle where they get shipwrecked and fall fluls of Chinese-ish pirates.

SixesAndEights · 01/08/2020 20:54

I swam in Coniston this time last year and it was really warm. Not far from Wild Cat Island, actually!

1point21gigawatts · 01/08/2020 20:59

@JasperRising yep, TV adaptations from the 80s. Tom Dudgeon is played by a Dimbleby who is now a restaurant critic apparently.

JasperRising · 01/08/2020 21:03

Coniston was very cold when I swam in it! (Was the autumn though).

@1point21gigawatts I can't believe I didn't know this. I was only aware of the two S&A adaptations. Will have to check them out!

itsgettingweird · 01/08/2020 21:04

@ineedaholidaynow

I wonder what all the posters who have not got the book references make of the all the comments about duffers and drowning!
I actually didn't realise this was S and A and thought it would be FF reference.

But loving the duffers quotes.

My Kate nan always called me a silly old duffer. She was a wren in WW2.

I now wonder if this is what're she got it from?

Makes me want to read the books Smile