A Little Girl Almost 3 Years Old, Walks Home Alone From Nursery.

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2412605/Two-year-old-girl-WALKED-private-nursery-way-home-workman-left-door-open.html

It was simply amazing how this little 3 year old managed to find her way home, but it is reported in the news story that,

/// No one noticed she had gone and no passer-by intervened even though her route took her past a busy pub. ///

/// Mr Hilton said he was also appalled that no passer-by had intervened but added that Louise has not been told off. ///

The question that has to be asked is, "would any of you have intervened, in today's cases of child abductions etc?

[LochNessMonster]

Workman should get his ar*e kicked.

[Peter Pedant]

others could be street party
ancient

pepper mustard sesame

[mikey4444]

Not sure exactly what you are saying PP, as perhaps you haven't proof-read
your post enough, but I presume your brother is not in custody. Nasty thing for him, no doubt. Not sure if his experience should make us all stop jogging though.

Extreme examples make poor law.

[Peter Pedant]

.

If a lone teenage lad arrives at a London railway station
apparently it is 45 minites before an indecent approach

[mikey4444]

All the more reason for a decent approach then PP !

When I worked in London in the late 80's, I was put up by BT in a large hotel in Russell Square. I quite often strolled up to Kings Cross at about 22.00 as the next days papers were on sales there. After a while I couldn't help but notice that there were obviously rent boys and quite young prostitutes hanging around. Very unsavoury. Afterwards I went to Piccadilly Circus for my papers instead, although, it has to be said, it wasn't much better there.

Not sure if this sort of thing is still the problem it was 25 years ago. I have some Christian friends who are "Street Pastors" who work through the night in Cardiff, and they have told me some hair-raising tales.

[Gromit]

// On arriving home, she announced to her astonished mother Samantha O’Connor: ‘I have walked home on my own – aren’t I a big girl?’

At 2pm, there was a knock at the door when Mr Hilton, who delivers cars for a living, was also at home. //

So both parents were at home when the child was at the nursery. I wonder if they will rethink that?

[sp1814]

Sqad

I wouldn't have tried to help anyone 50 years ago, because that would've been three years before I was born, and I suspect I would not have been much help.

I am thinking more of the mid 80s.

I remember the whole paedophiles on every street corner thing seemed to be the thrust of many newspaper articles from the 90s onwards.

[Sqad]

sp..I know! I know!...;-)

[jno]

I once walked home on my own from the doctor's, when I was two. It was about half a mile. I remember nothing about it, but my mother - whom I had somehow left behind - was frantic.

In those days, it seems, nobody thought anything of a two-year-old toddling along the streets. And indeed I was safe.

[Gromit]

Jno,
The only traffic then was the milkman's horse not 40 tonne trucks.

[jno]

Gromit... it depends... nurseries aren't just childminding devices for when parents are out, it's part of the socialising process. You might like to keep them with you when you're at home, or you might like them to be with their friends.

[jno]

true, Gromit, there were cars around, quite a lot in fact, but my route (I suppose) was along quiet residential streets in the middle of the day. I wonder if I stopped and looked both ways before crossing roads, as I have no doubt I had been taught to do.

[Gromit]

Jusy my opinion, but 2 year olds should be learning from adults, such as looking boths ways at roads, rather than socialising. Another 2 year old will not be good for learning from.

If both parents need to go to work, and there are no grandparents available to childmind, the a nursery is last resort. But the childs development will be hindered.

[anotheoldgit]

Yes all very well saying that you would first dial 999 on your mobile, or stop another adult so that you had a 'chaperone' but these are ideal situations what if you did not have a phone or could not get the assistance of another adult, or perhaps you are driving and stop and call the child over to question her, and someone then spots you, what then?

I once experienced one of those ideal situations, I once spotted a young child roaming around a supermarket obviously lost, but did I approach the child? No I spotted the security man and informed him, happily the child was soon united with it's mother, who thanked us both for our help.

But what if the child's mother had spotted me on my own, talking to her child? I think that the outcome for me would have been entirely different.

[anotheoldgit]

mikey4444

/// Difficult one perhaps but maybe James Bulger would still be alive today if someone had acted. We have far too much "turn the other cheek" these days for my liking. ///

Then perhaps there were some who thought that there was nothing wrong with two other children walking along with another child, but what if the two abductors had been adults, then there would be alarm bells ringing straight away, maybe that is why some choose to 'turn the other cheek'?

[Zeuhl]

/but might have asked a woman nearby to intervene with me/

I think Brady and Hindley did for that particular strategy.

I would still intervene

I think an important factor is body language and being very open about what one is doing

for example; as in Mrs Sqad's awful experience, picking up a child is probably not a good idea

I am deliberately overt in public to smiling at, speaking with, or interacting with young children however and whenever appropriate

the alternative, as has been already posted, is to pander to this paranoia that is almost uniquely British and largely due to the populist media

[wolf63]

I don't have children but watch out for apparently lost little ones in the street.

Mothers with mobile phones can't possibly supervise a toddler whilst wandering along the pavement well ahead of their child.

But even as a woman I am cautious and tend to stand back and see what happens (ie mother remembers toddler) rather than dart in and talk to the child.

As adults our job is to protect the next generation from the hazards of life.

[DJHawkes]

am i the only one who doesn't think it quite rings true? after watching the report with the mother last night i got an uneasy feeling of something not quite as it was being told.

[anotheoldgit]

DJHawkes

What I did notice that there was a tone of 'compensation' coming from the mother's lips.

Or could it be that i am being rather cynical, in my old age?