Parents who are just too protective.

[SleepToad]

Following on from the unpaid nanny thread where the step mum left an 11 year old for 10 minutes and then later cooked a meal with her. I walked past the local comprehensive school today. It's half term and the artificial sports pitch is being used for all day long coaching sessions. kids about 10 years old. There were 2 parents sat in their cars watching the training...they were spending their day overseeing the coaching of their kids in a group situation of about 30 kids and 4 coaches. If they don't believe their kids to be safe why send them?

It is also very noticeable how much less traffic there is on the road...kids not being driven to the comprehensive.

Am I being unreasonable to worry that we will have a generation of adults unable to do anything alone, unable to evaluate risk, even to cross the road because their parents are not allowing them the chance to indulge in some independent life of their own?

So what's worse, the parents who couldn't care less and sit in the car on their phones, then when their child picks up an injury the coaches have to track them down or the parents who maybe show an interest and enjoy watching their kid and their team mates?

op your problem is really with kids being watched more as opposed to the young ones causing chaos around towns by bothering shop staff or people on the street? Or the kids you see on their own going to school all independent but walking out in front of cars as they cross the road without looking or trying to pet strange dogs, or messing right next to the footpath causing people in cars to be unsure? Give me an overprotected child any day- the crap I see most mornings on the way to the train station and the schools or in work (I work in a supermarket), isn’t from kids whose parents are watching them too much!!!

As I said, it's all day. Plus it's not man United, it's local football coaches just basically a half term club

Why are you watching other people’s kids training all day?

And how does one fit a deck chair in a car?

Some things say that the child's adult has to be on site at all times. Presumably an Ofsted/lack thereof thing? Or insurance?

Also the quiet traffic is probably because a lot of parents took the week off work to spend some time with their kids surely?

I know where you’re coming from OP. There’s a school beside my house and I’m always baffled at the amount of children that get a lift to it from their parents every morning. I was getting myself up and walked/ got the bus to school every morning from when I was about 13. My next door neighbour drops her 17 year old to school every morning and sorted her work experience

Could you explain the deck chairs, please? Because at the moment I'm struggling to picture multiple parents sitting on deck chairs, in their cars, in February

Next to the car. In the car park. .while the area is very green. We are one of many commuter towns for Bristol...so I doubt if any kid has come more than 2 miles.

the snarky and judgemental bit, perhaps I am, but the kids who are a pain in the arse walking down the road are perhaps like that because it's all very new and a chance to actually be "naughty" for the first time?

Yep We can’t leave training at my son’s Saturday team.

Live and let live, there are far worse parents out there.

Did you mean deckchairs on a car? Like this? Surely that woukd ruin the paintwork.

Why did you say they were in their cars if they weren’t?

A lot of kids want their parents to stay and watch and because parents are kind and supportive they do as they ask.

the kids who are a pain in the arse walking down the road are perhaps like that because it's all very new and a chance to actually be "naughty" for the first time?

You must have very long arms with all these reaches

I really want one of those tents that goes on the roof of a car but they cost the same as some properties so I may do this instead 😂

At DD's dance school a group of parents stay in the tiny lobby talking, despite some kids doing multiple classes, so there for hours. They aren't helicopter parents. For some it's a social outing as they all know each other well, and some live up to an hour away (country area). My DD only goes for an hour & I drop & go then come back. And I'm probably more helicopter than the lot of them!!

I do think twice about these situations since the tragedy in Southport. Parents dropping their girls off for a fun activity would never have thought anything would happen, but it did. Obviously we can't wrap our children in cotton wool and have to balance freedom and safety, but it doesn't surprise me that some parents are less confident leaving their children now.

My son is older now but when he was about 14/15 he arranged to meet a friend at the bus stop and head into town centre together. He was just leaving when his friend called to say that his mum wouldn't let him go out because it was raining. I burst out laughing thinking it was a joke. It wasn't. Maybe he was made of sugar or something.

First you were just walking past now you were watching the parents, watch the sport, all day?

My friend stays to watch she adores her son and had ivf she knows as a teacher herself it's a limited window for interacting.

You've clearly got too much time on your hands. Do you work, OP?

As I said, it's all day. Plus it's not man United, it's local football coaches just basically a half term club

If you knew anything about football you'd probably know that a local team are just as good as Man United, if not better.

The reduction in traffic during school holidays can also be down to teachers not needing to commute, rather than hordes of parents driving.

So they’re say in their cars, but they’re also sat next to their cars on deck chairs, right. How much of your time do you spend watching people split in half?

There were plenty of arsey kids who walked down the road, went scrumping, played knock down ginger, went shoplifting in the town centre, etc. in the 60s and 70s when kids were left to roam around during the holidays. I'm not suggesting the current lack of independence for kids is good for them, just disputing that it's the cause of the poor behaviour you describe.

I do think we have a lot more parents with bad anxiety nowadays, and also that there are more kids with support needs who would previously not have been given the opportunity to participate in a mainstream holiday club. And I can see those being reasons why you might see parents sitting near their kids at a holiday club. But the vast majority of parents I've ever met are only too glad to leave their kids at a holiday club - if they had the time and inclination to sit around and watch they wouldn't be using the club in the first place.

I doubt it if they can dedicate entire days to watching other people and children.

Weird.
Kids on Sark, where there are no cars, cycle to school on their own from the age of 5.
I'd be walking a short distance to the bus stop at 6 (town in Devon). I walked a mile to school, through a much bigger town, at 12 - and there were dirty pervs making comments en route about my breasts by the time I was 13-14. My mother and her sisters left school at 14 and went to work - my best friend (and also my DH) both left school at 15 and went to work.
Children are very capable, don't let the news shock stories influence you, I bet the occasions when a child is harmed is no greater than it was decades ago. Let children learn to cope and trust themselves.