Boarding school

ViceVersa

Grams2five

I wouldn’t have and didn’t send mine to boarding school and I wouldn’t have married a man who’s career made such a thing a necessary. If careers had meant we had to travel the world we would have , Never in a thousand years would I have considered it. I had children because I wanted to be with them and raise them as much as I could in the time I had I’ve never for a moment understood how or why anyone would choose to use boarding schools. Nannies and other things for daytime care i understand though never used it myself. But to have ones children actually live elsewhere is so terribly sad to me.

I didn't realise people chose a spouse based on that person's career choices...

Surely we all should have sat them down and interviewed them as to their future careers and prospects before we married them? 😁

Galaxy

People choose their spouse for all sorts of reasons, I would have been unlikely to choose a spouse who was the lead singer of a rock band for example, if early in a relationship I realised that someones job meant moving around the country all the time I probably would have opted out, it is just not the type of person I am, it is fine for people to be different.

choose a spouse
You make it sound like a marriage agency!

Perhaps for some young women it was.

Not a marriage agency but part of getting to know each other to see if sharing a life together was a possibility.

I knew that marrying DH was signing up for a peripatetic lifestyle but frankly I would have followed him to hell and back and felt like that for fifty six years. We were both in the Army, so married or not it wouldn’t have been a settled existence for either of us. I knew what I was signing on for. For the most part it was a good life.

Determined to live in East Anglia, never move house (unless it burned down or was otherwise destroyed). Grow old together. Bob's your Uncle.

They're not the brutal instutitions of the old days and the weirder aspects of public school life like fagging have long gone. Modern boarding schools are probably as liberal as most state schools, but there are some that have things like compulsory military training that are missing from state schools and some children might object to.

I was talking to DS about this at the weekend. He said yes, there were aspects of boarding he didn’t like - aspects of school in general that he didn’t like as with most children I expect - but he says it taught him how to be self reliant, how to look after himself and his belongings, and he made good friends that he didn’t have to say goodbye to every two years, and there was plenty of rugby, cricket and football! They didn’t have a cadet corps - he got his compulsory military training at home😂!

No, most boarding schools don't have compulsory military training and it is only a tiny part of the curriculum for one year anyway. It concentrates on physical fitness, teamwork, encouraging leadership.

My DC and DN did many of the same things at their comprehensive schools - DC went to the Army camp and completed assault courses, volunteering in the community, the D of E course etc.

Hear hear NonGrannyMoll! I totally agree!

Nicky Campbell on Radio 4 has programmes discussing Boarding School and the effects it had. Monday am about 10.40ish

I think I read too much of the Four Marys in Bunty when I was young. Boarding school sounded really fun and exciting. I expect, if I'd actually gone to one, I would have been very homesick and frightened.

They may have suited some older children reasonably well but for little children it must have been terrifying. Also, there was a far greater risk of sustained bullying and physical and sexual abuse in such institutions.

I don't think it should be likened to children going to nursery. It may not be ideal but unfortunately most women have to go out to work these days because everything is so expensive. They may prefer to stay at home for a year or so, or work part-time but quite often they don't have the choice.

There are all sorts of reasons why parents do or don't send their children to boarding school, and I personally wouldn't question any of them.

I did go to a boarding school, my family circumstances were unique to me, the same as my best friend's, who didn't go to boarding school, were to her.