To think parents are not teaching any independence?

[MrBlobbysNuts]

A local parent group is in uproar because their precious secondary school children are apparently "too vulnerable" to get the bus before and after school without a phone (phones have been banned from premises entirely)

How is getting a bus for 15 minutes without a phone unsafe? Back in the day we just had ourselves and we survived. Give the kids cash and teach them to stop relying on phones to get around. The world is no more dangerous than it was 40 years ago, if anything it’s much safer!

That’s the other thing. I would’ve been happy for DD to come home from school at a fairly young age (we did have a very specific set up), but not allowed until Y6 and had to fill in a form to do that.

I agree. It's exact change only on buses here - it's easier to use a bank card or phone ticket than find the exact change every day.

Think DN who used school bus service I did as teen for a while had that pass on her phone.

DD2 now at college she has bank card, banking app - and emergency cash at bottom of bag just in case - she used bus app to find best bus back - several routes - and has train or taxi both of which use apps. Phone helps her be independent.

When DS missed the stop and then bus down went down motorway he ended up in next city - he didn't panic used google maps to get to train station then app to find train back and then walked back up - and phone bank app to move money to his bank card so he coudl pay for it - he could have got a bus but he'd had his fill of buses that day. His phone made all of that easier for him to work out making him more independent not less.

I agree parents are feeding the decrease in grit, self reliance, independence and a work ethic.

I do however get a bit frustrated when people go on about not having phones back in the day. I do agree we didn’t but we did have phone boxes on every street corner and coins in our pockets in case we needed it. Having said that I do agree that secondary children are more than capable of getting a bus without a phone.

My kids school was like that too. They weren't allowed to walk to and from school by themselves until they were at least 10 or 11. My DH would walk to school along a main road for half an hour when he was 6. That just wouldn't fly now (and I'm not sure it would have ever been allowed by my own mother anyway). That would definitely have child services around now though.

Be less on a issue wouldn't it not having a smart phone.

The modern world increaisngly expects access to one - change the world and I'm sure many parents would be relived don't have to buy/get a phone or have mobile phone bill for teens.

If they bring in the ban at our school (very likely) it won’t be too much of an issue for us as we live 10 mins walk from school. I’m broadly supportive. But I think their phone gives them more independence so don’t really agree with the premise. My DS14 is very independent, and I am very non-helicopter. He uses the maps, bus app, apple wallet and internet to look stuff up and travels all over the city by himself by bus and bike, including to parts of the city he has never been to with us. He also doesn’t usually come straight home after school, especially in the summer. Him and his friends socialise, get buses places (free here in Scotland), and it would be a pita for all of them to have to go home first to get their phone - not everyone lives as close as us. I wouldn’t travel around without my phone and wouldn’t expect him to either.

In trials of this in my city they have lockable pouches the kids put their phones in at the start of the day. Seems like a good compromise position.

I wouldn’t give her a dumb phone , because there’s no point in buying a different device. She doesn’t really spend any time on SM now , so not sure it would make a difference.

I think you’ll find there is a lot of criticism of children on this thread and others on similar subjects on MN. Apparently it’s fine to criticise ‘youngsters’, but people of older generations.
Anyway, my children are very independent, despite having an old smartphone in order to be able to access their school bus pass and to do their homework on the bus home.

Adults raised without phones would struggle navigating a bus not turning up without a phone. We had reliable school buses, office staff paid to stay behind to help when there were any problems with the buses and phone boxes.

Mine don’t have any social media/games on their smartphones, just the apps they need for their bus pass and their homework. That was the only reason i provided them with a smartphone. If they weren’t able to use their smartphones then no, I wouldn’t buy a dumb phone, because it would be a waste of money when they already have a phone for what they need. They wouldn’t be able to access their bus pass or do their homework on a dumb phone, so it would be pointless. I’d be pissed off that I’d spent money on smartphones because they were needed for those purposes, as that’s all they use them for.

My workplace offers 2 weeks work experience for secondary school students - usually Year 10's. The schools normally ask them to write a letter telling us a bit about themselves and why they are interested in our placement. I would say over the last few years at least 30% are written by Mum or Dad. I get helping but these are written by the parents and normally start with My son/daughter"would like to apply. Sadly these kids are not even considered.

Crazy. Loads of kids here get the train to school from age 11.

At 14 I would have been going shopping with my friends to the nearest town using it.

I'd just wait for the next one. I can still read a paper timetable and I made sure my kids could too before I allowed them to use the phone, so they would have both skills.

I agree ! If you could find one the chances of it working were slim . Also I’m old but I seem to remember button A and button B , if you got it wrong it took your money but didn’t put you through. Completely unreliable!

lol! We used to walk to and from primary school, starting at the age of 7! It was about 20mins away. This is nuts!

Yup I had one of those too! Used it to ask my dad to collect me from the train station after I’d been out all day, many a time! It was so annoying it was about 20 numbers long and inevitably you’d punch one in wrong and have to start again 🤣

In my kids example it is just an agreed school bus stop so you would be waiting 24 hours for the next school bus to arrive. When my kids go to secondary they will be waiting at a cross roads on a 60mph road nowhere near any villages. Like I said when I caught the bus there we had a phone box but that no longer exists.

Yes that was my reaction - only one phone box on the whole urban journey and that was broken most of the time. Most villages had one at most and nothing in between villages.

I’d love to know where all these functioning phone boxes were.

Surprised - though pleased - to hear things like Faraday pouches are working so well for some schools. A local one had a rash of students bringing in old phones for appearances' sake, handing those over and carrying right on with their "real" ones

Detentions followed, as did ranting and raving parents threatening school with the police and god knows what else

A pity some just weren't prepared to instil any kind of discipline in their kids, but then they appeared to have little themselves so it probably didn't occur to them

Yes you were buggered if the phonebox had a 2p jammed into the slot.

People forget the phoneboxes all smelt of piss, were often smashed up and covered in vile graffiti and numbers for prossies too.

Me and a freind were once trapped in a phonebox by some older kids for half an hour. My friend wet herself as she was so scared.

'The good old days'

Where and when? Our buses were unreliable and the one phone box on my journey home was invariably vandalised. We had to learn to be more independent.

We were proactively taught about staying safe in the absence of known adults, knew every bus route, knew which roads to use when walking etc. Over time this has proved rather more useful than an instruction to “phone home” every time there is a problem.

Oh the smell - they were always vile.

They were disappearing long before smartphones became common simply because most of them were unusable and. more people had phones at home.

If children are not independent by secondary school then their parents are to blame. That isn’t criticising children.

If the children are still unable to function independently in the workplace as adults then it is also their responsibility.

Around my way bus companies still offer bus passes, not least for reasons of accessibility.

Early 90s, North Yorkshire. Ours was well maintained and usually worked but brick mobiles phones were definitely welcomed. We could get ourselves home but some children I know were run over on the road (one killed, one permanently disabled). Most people drive like complete morons on windy back roads these days so I wouldn't want an 11 year old walking down there. That feels like an unnecessary step back in time. I work in IT and advocate for smart phone free childhoods but I think sometimes a brick phone can avoid putting children in real danger. I feel the strongest voices on here live urban lives and have always been babied by reliable public transport, that's why their soluation is wait fpr the next bus to come along and swoop you up. Most rural people don't have that.

100% on board with phone use not being allowed in schools - but my DD only has the independence she has aged 12 because she has a phone and we have a tracker on it! It means she’s allowed to go to the shops after school or hang with friends for a bit without having to constantly check in with me and she’s allowed to go for walks etc on her own which I might not otherwise allow. I do realise phones have a lot of drawbacks but I can only see this as a positive and if they had been around 50 years earlier those parents would have been tracking their kids too!