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!

I manages 40 years ago. No mobile and no house phone

So the mum signed as a guarantor, but didn’t think to educate her own son on rental Contracts and she thinks that this is a fault of the university?
Your example is Harding an example of young people being clueless and more an example of a parent not educating their own child on things like rental contracts

Ok even if you could use the payphone and had a landline at home, what are your parents going to do about it if the don't drive or are miles away at work?

So why not give up your phone during the day then? Adults managed 25 years ago. Why not now?

But not everyone has a landline at home though.

There were pay phones everywhere

Do you not think many people do have to have their phones switched off while they are working?

Yep, she was angry that the university had not sat her adult son down to explain what signing a contract with a private landlord actually meant.The son had apparently signed the contract without reading it, while the mother had seemingly signed the guarantor agreement without understanding what she was guaranteeing. By the time she contacted me, she was being chased as guarantor for unpaid rent and wanted the university to pay compensation to cover her loss - she claimed the uni had failed in its duty of care by "allowing" her adult child to sign a legally binding contract that he clearly hadn't understood.

The story isn't really that relevant to the thread but the stupid tale of a parent complaining to a uni for not having taught their dc how to use public transport suddenly reminded me.

Children used to let their parents know if they were going to be late home or there was some other problem via the pay phone.

If I didn’t have to use it for work, I’d quite happily give it up during the day. I’d love to take any calls and messages during the evening only.

I grew up in a no phone household. We had our first phone when I was 17, 1997. I desperately wanted a phone, it was embarrassing that we didn’t have one.

Now, I hate them. I hate the ringing, the interruptions, just hate being called oh and the arriving at the same place because I’ve been tracked. wtf! I like the old freedom days!

How is this relevant in 2026?
The world is a different place now. We all managed with the resources we had 40 years ago because the world was set up for that. In 2026 I use my phone to buy rail tickets (it has my railcard on it), buy cinema tickets, as a satnav, to listen to audio books on long drives, to keep in touch with DD who is a student, to look up a myriad of useful information and loads more.

Stating what we did or didn't do 40 years ago is pointless.

Only because you didn't have them available 😅 people managed with no hot water and electricity too 🤷‍♀️

Can't imagine in 40 years saying to people well I managed without such a such so children should too 😅

No home phone at my house though. Who would I call?

Agree.

It's not a safer world either, these days, despite what some here are claiming.

My DCs' high school in the US has banned phones during classes. All classrooms have a phone storage thingy like an over the door shoe holder where students deposit phones as soon as they walk into the room. Students can use their phones during passing periods and at lunch, and once the school day is over their phone use is entirely up to them.

It was a reply to someone saying people only managers 25 years ago because their were phones

I'm not saying they aren't useful but best not to over depend on them. Easily dropped, smashed or stolen

No mobile and no house phone
There were pay phones everywhere

And what use was a payphone if you didn't have a phone at home, as many people didn't? Who ya gonna call?

So why not give up your phone during the day then?

My phone spends most of its time in my bedside drawer. As I think I said before, I only take it out with me if I'm travelling to meet someone, and might need to let them know the train is delayed. But we managed without phones - we (mostly) made an effort to be where we said we would be, when we said we would be, so our friends weren't hanging around waiting for us. (Over the course of my life there have been two people I gave up making arrangements with because they were not reliable.)

40 years ago - so 1986. It was pretty unusual for households to not have a phone in 1986.
I had a friend at school who didn't have a phone in the early 1970s and that was quite unusual even then.

Well we didn't have one Nor did my grandmother. My friends mum installed a payphone in her house as she had loads of teenagers

It was 82 I was at secondary school and79 when I was making my way to and from school by myself

Thumb a lift, I suppose.

You don't see many kids doing that nowadays. I wonder why.

How's that relevant to what the parents could do about kids ringing them if a bus doesn't turn up

Hardly unusual seeing as only about 40% of households had phones in the early 70s

The 80s id agree with you more

Twenty years ago, the local authority sent every state-educated child entitled to a place on a school bus a laminated ticket showing their name and school, and public buses accepted payment in cash!

I grew up in suburban Dublin in the 60s and 70s and can't remember a time when we didn't have a phone. An aunt in a very remote rural area got a phone in the early 80s. She was the last of my relatives to have a phone.

Living remotely meant that my cousins had free bussing to school and back, so they didn't experience the sort of emergency I might have run into, taking the public CIE bus from school every day with my younger siblings and a few other children in tow.

My parents taught me to use a payphone around age 8, gave me the coins I needed (kept them in my schoolbag), and I had the numbers of three neighbours memorised in case I really needed help urgently.

It's relevant to what the kids could do if the parents had no phone/ were at work/ had no car.

Obviously, having a phone and a selection of people to call is a far better idea than thumbing a lift.

Hardly unusual seeing as only about 40% of households had phones in the early 70s

Yes, quite a lot of my secondary school friends c.1970, possibly the majority, didn't have a phone.