To be VERY concerned about unattended 7 year olds?!

[Iamthedoctor]

I am actually gobsmacked. For once in my life.

I have just been reading another thread and a couple of people have said that they allow their 7 year olds to walk to school on their own WITHOUT making sure that they go in the gates.

HELLO?!!!

DD is 8. There is NO WAY on this earth would I allow her to walk to school on her own!

Worst case scenario:

DD walks to school by herself. I don't see her go in. Some arsehole snatches her. I don't know about it until AFTER school, because the school don't ring me to say she hasn't arrived. Cue police/newspapers/radio/manhunt.

I feel very strongly about this! It's madness!

Fair enough, allow them to walk HOME from school (then you KNOW that they have arrived!), but PLEASE think about what you are doing!

Er, did you not say that you left 11month old by self while you went to the school? How the hell would you know if there was a fire?

Iamthedoctr no one actally thinks you are a nutjob, THAT woudl be the mother on 'Cotton Wool Kids' who was serious about getting her kids microchipped

There is no legal age at which you can leave a child unattended, however as Misdee has pointed out, you can be charged with neglect in the (unlikely) EVENT that something happens.

kay - actually as I told H we're going to California............Great Yarmouth

Actually I'm more likely to "save" my younger DS's from a fire if I pop out the front door for 2 minutes than if I'm out the back in the garden for 7 or 8. Not least because both of them would be at the front of the house and I wouldn't be able to see the flames flickering out of the front bedroom window from the garden

Not at all, Iamthedoctor, not at all, after all, it's not as if I'm making a valid, if sarcastically put, point about the screaming anxiety that 21st century mothers have whipped themselves into regarding the level of genuine paedophilia in this country compared to the level of eighteen year old men and women leaving home having rarely walked anywhere alone without a rape alarm firmly grasped in their sweatily terrified fist.

Not that being hopelessly inadequately prepared for adult life and responsibilities could have ANY bearing on lack of self responsibility in earlier life, oh no...

Your kids could be in a fire with you there.

I actually think that colditz, smug, humourous or otherwise has made the most valid point on the whole thread.

yes if he's not long since gone down for a nap (the 11 month old) I leave him in his cot asleep, the chances of my house catching fire in the 2 minutes it takes me to get DS1 is extraordinarily small

That is young to be left alone for even a short time. I'm not sure that its illegal though. I wouldnt have done it with my DD but left her to pop to the shops when she was around 9.

Yes, cold's aliens point was concise and relevant

FAQ. I seriously hope that nothing ever happens to one of those kids. There is nothing worse than those parents whose child has had a trauma, saying "I don't know what I did wrong".

What about people like me who live in a first floor flat?

I have often left 13mo DS asleep or playing in his playpen to go to shed/put rubbish out/check electric? A fire could somehow start while I am downstairs.

dh house (before i met him) was set slight with them all in there.

in the middle of the night.

when we lived in a pub, we would regularly (ie: every night) leave the kids upstairs while we were downstairs.

They were in the same building

We had a baby monitor

All doors accessible by the public were locked.

But they were still further away from us than FAQ is to hers when she goes to the school.

So there.

There is something worse. The people who blame them.

Might have been relevant. I wasn't denying that fact. But anyone who can joke about child peadophilia needs shooting, IMO.

so do you never go and do a poo on your own then????

What about if something happens to a kid while the parents are elsewhere in the house? Let's say, baby is upstairs at back of large terraced, parents are downstairs. What then?

I was walking to school from thge age of 7 mum walked part way with me through the estate then left me to it. She couldnt see the school gate but i was respnsible enough to do it. Before i was 9 i was walking all the way to school on my own as i had the common sense to use the lolly pop lady.

My ds could start walking to school on his own earlier than that. Slate me all you like i can see the infant and junior school gates from my house.

Pointydog. I never blame. I just cringe at the words 'I don't know what I did wrong.'

does no one think that actually the 11mo asleep in the cot is FAR safer left alone for a couple of minutes than, say, a 5yo for a couple of minutes?
I have OFTEN wished I could leave my now 2.2yo alseep in his cot rather than wake him to go and collect 5yo from school.
But I am out of the house for 15 mins minimum, I can't see the house at all, actually doing it is not even a consideration.
If I lived next door to school, could see my house for the whole 2/3 mins I was away....well it is a no brainer really.

I hope Chris Morris has good protection then doctor!