Would you put a 10 year old in a taxi alone?

[Himitsu]

My daughter has a club she really loves however my husbands hours have changed which means he’s is now at work. I won’t have time to go home and collect her and take her to her club before then going to collect my younger one from nursery.

Trying to think of ways to get her there! Would you feel comfortable with this?

What about employing a babysitter to do this? Eg from a website like Sitters. Is that an option?

My child is 10
We use taxis but I don't think I'd want to do this, no

Would it help if she stayed on at after school club and you got her from there after collecting from nursery?

Get the younger one from nursery first. Or do get the nursery dc?

Oh, jeeze! MN overthinking it again!

So the big question is whether you (and your 10yr old are sensible)? Can you cope? Probably. If so, riding in a pre-booked taxi should not be a problem for your DC.

I had the same issue for a while: clubs' clash. I booked a taxi and let the dance teacher know. She made sure someone supervised DD into the taxi so we at least knew that side - not that I was really concerned. Naturally, the taxi company just brought DD home. They don't want any bother; they like a guaranteed fare and they're keen to move on to the next fare. As soon as I'd paid, they'd forgotten DD.

In the nicest way, I wonder whether most of you are being a bit precious. Taxi drivers take clients to/from places all the time, some clients are vulnerable for a range of reasons but it all works, nonetheless. It's A to B for the taxi drivers. If there's any complaint, everyone knows where they were and who was in the taxi. 99.9% are just taking a person to/from a destination. We hear about taxi horror but compared to the millions of journeys, these are an infinitesimal minority.
There are dodgy types on buses and at bus stops too.

Nope.

Absolutely not no

Absolutely not

School transport taxis take young children all the time without a chaperone. They are of course contracted by the LA and have DBS checks

Therefore, if needed, I would seek a company like this, most taxi firms are doing it, it wont be hard to find one, its extremely lucrative, what will be hard is finding one who has a slot at that time if its around school time.

No and I doubt that the taxi firm would agree. Children of that age who are transported to special schools have to have an escort

Not all have escorts. My DD hasn’t had an escort for the last 3 years. None of the children who travel by taxi to her school have escorts. Only the minibuses now have escorts.

My sister was raped by a licenced taxi driver after a night out aged 22. She got the number plate and he was caught. It went to court and he got a year in prison. No I wouldn't put a child in a random taxi (school transport is different)

@ARichtGoodDram ah okay, maybe it is LA specific, or more likely due to cuts. My dd had this maybe 6 years ago

Do you have a Driving Miss Daisy branch near you?

Driving Miss Daisy UK
0333 014 6211

https://g.co/kgs/uuV57Zn

We found this to be the case when we wanted to arrange a taxi service to take my 16yr old to and from school. This was last yr.

And hundreds of children transported to mainstream schools in taxis do not have an escort.

Escorts are to take care of the child’s additional needs. Not because children can’t be alone with a taxi driver.

My high school kid goes in a mini bus taxi which collects loads of kids on the way. My primary kid goes in a taxi alone. No chaperones are needed.

No chance

I had to do this when I had covid (LP). Call the local taxi firms, they may have DBS checked drivers specially trained to take kids. They often give you a link so you can follow the car's journey and get a call when they pick up / drop off.

Likely due to the cuts as it’s not common in any of the LAs round here anymore.

That said the taxi company that do DDs school run don’t take under 16s unaccompanied at any other time.

i assume the LA contract is so valuable to them they don’t want to risk any issues or accusations that could jeopardise it.

I think it would be fine, could you call the taxi firm and enquire about a regular arrangement maybe with the same driver. My ex was a taxi driver and had to have enhanced crb. Not exactly foolproof, but better than nothing.

Have also occasionally had to order a taxi for my kids from school when they lost a bus ticket 🙄no problems.

Where will she be from the end of school to you getting home?

We have a taxi company near us that's owned and operated by women and only has women drivers... and I would be comfortable using them for this. Do you have anything similar where you are?

(Not saying all men are a risk but most of the risk to girls and women does come from men!)

I very much doubt they’d take her.

Absolutely no. I was about 24 when a taxi driver tried to feel me up after he dropped me home after a night out!