2 Little Boys.

[pussnboots]

2 boys aged 6 & 7 were killed crossing a motorway in the dark last night.. The father of one of the boys said that he had told the lad not to play near the motorway....need I say more...is this another example of parents who don't care where their kids are as long as they aren't 'bothering' them.

[Reverandfunk]

Im sure I heard that they were looking for the kids 2 hours before the accident happened

[Dassie]

"Missing"....."looking for them".... Hello people, we are not talking about teenagers here.

6 and 7 year olds should be playing in the back garden or house and not be roaming the countryside woods at that time of day. Unfortunately we all know what can happen to young kids out on their own nowadays let alone a motorway accident.
Parenting skills seem to be non-existant here.

[LoftyLottie]

Totally agree Dassie. At six years old children should not be given this sort of freedom - even when I was young millions of light years ago I was always expected to play in the garden or in the gardens of friends where their parents were there to supervise. At six and seven, children are far too young to be trusted to be sensible.

However, there are obviously lots of people that disagree and I genuinely feel so sorry for the families. A terrible tragedy.

[danchip]

similar thing happened with a slightly older girl here but they were playing chicken with the cars

unfortunately the poor woman who hit the girl had a massive heart attack 2 days later and died,

it just shows what a massive blow things like this can have on everyone involved

[anotheoldgit]

Very many posters seem to have a fixation on the time of day eg. children of that age shold not be allowed out at that time of the day.

It is half term, it would have most likely had the same tragic outcome, if they had decided to take this very dangeous short cut home, earlier in the day.

[jiggy-gb]

You're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't. So many people on here talk about how kids re getting fat and lazy, never playing out, sat staring at the tv and pc games etc, yet in the next breath they shouldn't be allowed out of the garden.

They were playing in the street in front of the house according to local news, they'd been told not to go past the end of the street and to be back before teatime. When there was no sign of them shortly before 5 they alerted neighbours and police and all were searching for them. No, it was not the parents fault, kids don't always listen, the motorway should have had adequate fencing at exposed points, there are many things in hindsight, but it was no ones fault, just a tragic accident.

Either we keep kids indoors like prisoners and they get fat, or we take risks and let them have a proper childhood. The chances of this happening are so remote, but sadly not impossible. Children should be allowed to play out. It's no wonder they turn ferral when they finally escape the family prison in their early teens and roam the streets in packs!

[rabbitygirl]

OK lets define this a bit. If you are lucky enough to have a street where your kids can play out, you let them. We mums in our cul de sac would come out with the children from quite young and sit on the walls and watch them. We had a boundary restriction which we explained from the start, but we watched to keep them in it.

Gradually, as they got older they played alone, boundary the same, and watched - often. We made sure they were still there, came in before dark because they were still there to bring in before dark. You are the parent, the protector, its what you do. There is nothing more important that needs doing than being out there or going out there often and checking they are still there and safe.

Children need to have freedom in increasing doses. Of course it would be ridiculous to suddenly let them roam miles after only experiencing their own door step. They would become lost, frightened and in great danger as we have seen.

Eventually, not at 6 - 7, they can go a little further. By the time they go on to secondary school they should be confident, know boundaries because you have always set them, and as safe as you have made them.

Of course it is not fool proof. Accidents will and can happen but let us just stand back and really understand how very young these 2 boys were.

[aims1202]

It is a tragic and very sad story. I think it was said that they were probably trying to get home quickly before it got too dark and they took crossing the motorway as a short cut. If they had tried to cross earlier in the day the chances are they would still have been killed.
Why is it that some people have to blame someone for things that happen? It was no ones fault.
When i was about that age we used to play in the street and down the road in the park. Once we made a hole in our fence at the bottom of our garden and got into a building site where we played, our parents didnt know and i reckon it was pretty dangerous. That was why we wanted to play there!
But I feel lucky that i had freedom, its made me who i am, and have such good memories from those days. Our parents did bother and care and were really good parents, they knew the risk was small and the benefits of playing like that far outweighed the risks.

[Dusty Bin]

It's been said a number of time above that these boys were rushing to get home so they tried crossing the motorway as a shortcut, but were they already on the other side of the motorway trying to get home or were they instead heading away from home when they were hit? Has this been established?

[Dassie]

No one's to blame ??? At the end of the day who is responsible for the welfare and safety of a 6 and 7 year old boy?......the parents. By all means let them play outside in the garden but outside the confines of the home/garden they need keeping an eye on at such a young age. The parents didn't even know where they were!