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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To allow 8/9 year olds to walk around a shopping centre alone (I’ll be in centre) for half hour?

224 replies

Egghead81 · 07/05/2021 18:17

My older child has an activity within a shopping centre

I was thinking of my daughter 8.5 and her friend 9 (needless to say telling her mother!) being given a pound each and allowed to go to smiths alone to by some treats and then have a wander in claire’s accessories etc. And then I meet them thirty mins later.

Very sensible girls. Thoughts?

OP posts:
Flubber88 · 07/05/2021 22:27

@Bluebird76

In the 80s, I used to get on a bus with a friend to mooch round the city centre shops, then get the his home again Grin I don't think the risk is any greater today (probably lower, as traffic was worse then). It's sad how much freedom kids have lost over the past 35 years. Fwiw I would actually have let two out of my three kids do this at 8/9, but not the third!! Don't see that it's a huge deal personally, if they are sensible.
Same as above 1980s lived in Greater London (still do) bus into Bromley/Croydon aged 8. Train into Victoria with mates aged 12. No phones back then. What with phones, CCTV etc etc. Even safer now!
AnnaSW1 · 07/05/2021 22:33

No way

Stopsnowing · 07/05/2021 22:38

There have been a spate of attempted abductions of school kids on their way home from school in our area. So it is a no from me. They are not old enough to cope with strangers or sudden events.

Stopsnowing · 07/05/2021 22:39

Oh and back in the day I was going up to town to mooch around shopping centres with no phone at 12. But 8 and 9 is too young

PresentingPercy · 07/05/2021 22:41

These events are very very rare and a shopping centre is a very public space. It’s not remotely worrying. I’m staggered about how many people don’t trust children in a very secure environment with lots of people about, no roads to cross and wash to follow layout. Poor things cannot do much in life it seems.

PresentingPercy · 07/05/2021 22:43

Also these children are not going on transport. They are just shopping.

HeyGirlHeyBoy · 07/05/2021 22:44

When we were 11 we were given an hour in a Dublin shopping centre on a school tour (3h from home). That is a bit mad when you think of it. It was a fairly big one too. Yes there's a risk but assuming not a dodgy area, sorry that is a consideration, it's a minimal one. However I am in Ireland and perhaps it's different.

IdblowJonSnow · 07/05/2021 22:46

Too young!
You could let them go in a few smaller shops and loiter outside but where you can see them?

pinkmagnolias · 07/05/2021 22:46

I wouldn’t dream of it tbh.

You can let them go into a shop and then meet them outside or and then post them into the next. That seems like a good compromise?

This seems a good idea ^

Luckyelephant1 · 07/05/2021 22:57

8 and 9 is too young....and a pound gets you nothing these says lol

pinkmagnolias · 07/05/2021 23:10

and a pound gets you nothing these days
I thought I was alone in wondering what they'd buy for a pound. If I offered my DC (similar age) a euro or two euro, they'd come back with it as they wouldn't be able to spend it!

CornishPastyDownUnder · 07/05/2021 23:15

Too young-and dont get the point tbh
DD and I walking home from movies yest afternoon and saw 2cops carting away and woman screaming and swearing writhing at top of her voice..shop owners outside and more cops talking to a ophone store owner..we'd missed the incident by minutes but wouldnt like the thoguth of 8yr olds potentially caught up in that-nto knowing how to deal etc.

Earlgrey666 · 07/05/2021 23:18

Not a chance sorry, I wouldn't allow that until around age 12.

Myglueattack · 07/05/2021 23:35

Nope!

lollipoprainbow · 07/05/2021 23:46

No!

chloeb8 · 07/05/2021 23:59

What in the bloody hell are nine-year-old children doing walking home on their own from school?

Don’t talk to me about teaching them independence because there’s literally no excuse at that young age.

sunflowertulip · 08/05/2021 00:02

I did at that age in a shopping centre with no roads, but I can't imagine my daughter will ready for it in a year (she's 7 now) but would depend on the child. I think sitting outside the shop when they went in is a good compromise.

TurquoiseDress · 08/05/2021 00:09

Hmmm...a definite no from me

Mine are younger than that age, but it just seems too young

HeyGirlHeyBoy · 08/05/2021 04:06

Chloe 8, no excuse for walking home from school? Thankfully I'm our case, there are probably close to say 60-80 children walking with their friends home, a ten minute walk. I'm very grateful my dc can do this. A child is more at risk in a car, believe it or not and if more children did it, the road safety side of it would be better too, with less cars on the road. I notice other children locally going to different schools also walking. It's a time of day when footpaths are busy with children.

eatsleepread · 08/05/2021 04:12

One pound? Is this a zombie thread from 30 years ago?! Grin

eatsleepread · 08/05/2021 04:15

13/14 is absolutely ridiculous. Poor kid, being mollycoddled to that degree.

avamiah · 08/05/2021 04:23

eatsleepread, I agree with you,
Hahahahaha .
£1 is a non starter.

YouJustDoYou · 08/05/2021 04:25

I can't at the moment as there's been a spate of attempted kidnappings in our area by a guy/s with lone children. Normally I would.

avamiah · 08/05/2021 04:28

My daughter is 11, year 6 primary about to go to secondary school in September and there isn’t a chance on this earth that she will be going to school by herself or coming home or going to any shopping centre with a friend or friends without me or a adult.

crapbuttrue · 08/05/2021 05:17

No, and I can be lax at times. An 11YO boy was raped in the toilets in the Arndale Centre in Manchester. There are risks.

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