Travel arrangements dilemma

[MarianLM]

Sorry - very first world problem! Am arranging to go go karting for my 13yr old birthday with 7 friends. My OH thinks we should meet at the tube and take them all with us. The go karting is strictly timed so I’m worried if any turn up late it’ll scupper the whole thing. The location is tricky to find, so that’s the positive of taking them with us although we can give instructions. Also is 7 kids too many kids to manage on a busy tube? Maybe better to ask the parents to get them there independently, then we can bring them all home after. Grateful for any advice

Of course I meant “8 kids” - can’t count! 😂

I'm doing exactly the same thing today! We're taking the kids on the bus / tube. Parents will drop off / pick up from our house. If there is both you and DH together then you'll be fine with 8 of them. As it's a tube ride away, I imagine the parents wouldn't be too happy at having to travel to the place directly. In theory a 13yo could travel alone so asking all the parents drop off at the venue seems like overkill.

You'll be fine!

Could you arrange to meet at a cafe before the tube and get them a hot chocolate to allow extra time for those that are late?

If it is one simple tube ride I'd take them on the tube. If not, I'd tell parents to bring to the venue.

Either way, give an arrival time 30mins before you need them to allow for stragglers.

I think it depends on the kids and how used to tubes they are - we use trains, tubes and buses everyday so I would hope that by the age of 13 my son was au fait enough to be sensible enough to travel alone/with friends/in a group without giving it too much thought. However if "going on the tube" is a big deal in itself and they're likely to get a bit silly with it (particularly if you have to change lines etc or you are changing at a "complicated" station like Earls Court, Hammersmith etc) then perhaps 8 kids is too many to take alone. That said, as a parent, I'd probs begrudge being asked to take my teenager somewhere on the tube if he'd been invited by a friend because the parents "didn't trust" him to go with them as it would cost me time and money so I may as well stay there and gave him go home with me at the end.

Thanks very much for the sound advice everyone - really helpful. There’s a complicated interchange which is what I was worried about, but think I’m over-fretting so going to go for it 🤞. Happy Sunday to you all x

Thank you @deludeddelia ! Hope your event went really well