Shannon the missing 9 year old girl

[funnygirl]

Would you let your son or daughter, who is 9 years old,
walk home alone from school??

Mr Funny who is a school caretaker, has often lost count of the children at his primary school, top age 11, that have not been collected by parents and has to baby sit then until the parents arrive.

Why did not Shannon's school do the same thing.

As far as I can make out, Shannon regularly walks home,
at 9 years for christ sake!!

When my boys were that age, I had child minders picking them up until they went to secondary school.

Is this lazy parenting!!!

[pastafreak]

My daughter who is now 22,started taking the bus home when she was 10. Her school was in the town centre and we lived in a semi-rural village. Tho we were 7 miles away , her actual bustrip took her thru every outlying village as ours was the final destination . This certainly wasn't choice on my part-I didn't drive, and I couldn't depend on anyone else. Did I worry?-of course......but in the long run it helped her develope her independence. We can't spend our lives worrying about 'what-ifs'...and the odds of bad things occurring are no greater now than1-2 generations ago. Maybe parents would be less worried if more kids were out and about. We live in a culture that wraps kids in cotton wool-what will they be like as adults?

[rabbitygirl]

We suffered a child murder in my family. When I became a parent I had to achieve a good balance of when my boys could be out alone. By chance we lived in a cul de sac and the school was at the end of the road.

But I know I was careful without unnecessary restriction. They went off on their own in increasing distances so as to secure their feeling of due independence.

When they went to secondary school, a 25 minute walk, I never drove them until they took final exams. In fact going to that school was something I did feel strongly about. I was tired of hearing kids being left miles from home when school buses packed up so I backed up my choice of school with our family history and got it.

[aims1202]

As adults they will be scared to do anything. I have a friend who was very overprotected as a child, she is scared to take her daughter to the woods in case they get attacked! She is also too scared to go to London (she lives in Surrey). She thinks every other bloke is a child aductor waiting to take her daughter! There are going to be so many more adults like this in 20 years time. They will also not be able to cope in tricky situations and are more likely to get into danger.
The media are to mostly to blame i think. The news, if you watch/read it all the time gives you a distorted view of our country and it scares people and it stops people trusting others. Its much better to make friends with your neighbours/community, to go out, to travel and meet people to find out what happens in the world.
When you have communities that all know each other the children are safer, they can play out and others look out for them.