Brighton to London - Too Young

[LibbsnLoos]

This summer we are moving from London to Brighton with our 2 DC aged 7 and 11. DD is starting senior school.
DD currently does a hobby 9-12.30 Saturday mornings then another 2 - 4.30.
I was very much under the impression DD would be giving these up and finding replacements in Brighton, turns out DH has been trying to come up with a plan for her to keep going and tonight has suggested we let her get the train to London on her own! Then get the tube 2 stops to activity 1, do activity 1, get the tube another 4 stops to activity 2, where she will be ok to arrive early and eat lunch, do they activity tube and then train home.
He grew up getting the train from Bedford to London then the tube for School everyday so thinks this is fine.
DD is confident an capable but I worry about what she would do if the trains got cancelled (obviously we'd go get her but in the meantime!)
It isn't viable for one of us to go with as I work Saturday and someone has to be with DS and dragging DS to London every week wouldn't be fair.
AIBU to think this is way to young for a journey like this?

Your DH is nuts for suggesting this. She’s far too young.

Sorry OP but it's crazy to even consider this! She's too young.

Not too young, I did similar at that age, but pointless if same activities can be done in Brighton. She’ll probably get bored of the travel pretty quickly and want to make local friends.

What does your husband mean by "work around the cancellations"? It sounds to me like "lalala, I'm not going to think about potential problems, you're just a negative Nellie ". Does he realise that, as you work Saturdays, HE will need to be the one to come up with the solution, week after week?

I'd suggest that if it's such a great idea and so easy, DH can tag along for the ride too ... He can do a couple of hobbies himself whilst there...

They can have some lovely 1-2-1 time and I'm sure DH won't be utterly exhausted/bored trvelling in a D out of London every single Saturday for a hobby he could do on his doorstep.

Crazy idea - she'd be out of the house, unsupervised for about 12 hours, assuming no travel delays with the two train trips and four tube trips, every Saturday.

This is silly. While I'm fairly sure that your DD would be completely fine given that she lives in London now and is probably completely au fait with public transport, I can't fathom why anyone would want to spend hours of their weekend on trains. Not to mention the cost! I'm fairly sure she hasn't fully appreciated how boring it might be either.

Plus it would be of far more benefit to your DD to start making friends in the new location and hobbies can help with this. If the hobbies are available in Brighton then it would be much better to get her started on these sessions asap so she can make some friends who live nearby, hopefully meet some children who'll be going to her new school.

If it's something very niche that she really loves (it doesn't sound like it from what you have said) I'd consider it. But honestly, spending all that time commuting to hobbies seems a poor way to spend her precious weekends.

I think she is too young, and I have put an 11 year old on a 45m train from Essex to London, took them to platform and literally put them on train, they were met at the other end. No way would I have had the tube bit though.

No flipping way.

I assume the people saying no way/too young don't live in London. This child currently does so is presumably used to the transport system. Thousands of 11 year olds get on the tube on their own in London every day of every term to go to school and they all seem to manage fine. The main problem here isn't the tube or the lack of supervision, it's the hours out of her weekend it will take and the high likelihood of weekend engineering works.

As the Tommy Robinson protest march that happened the other day apparently began outside Victoria Station I definitely wouldn't want an 11 year old travelling there by themselves.

Putting aside her age and the fact that she'll be gone every Saturday, this has her missing out on making local friends which is really important as she moves through senior school. It's a bad idea.

Well a quick search on the Trainline website, using the start/end times given in the OP, would suggest that it will cost £29.24 for a return rail ticket (Brighton to London Victoria). Tube fares should be free (with a Zip card), but there's still the cost of lunch, any drinks etc.

Every week? I think that's a lot - especially when the alternative would be doing those activities in a place where she lives, which would also mean she makes friends locally.

She isn’t going to want to keep doing it. she will make local friends at school and is much better off doing activities in Brighton. The trains can be very unreliable and cancellations etc are too much for her to deal with at that age.

What a bonkers plan.