Mother put on child abuse register for letting her 5 year old go for a walk!

I am not saying anything about age but if children are not taught how to react when on their own it doesn’t matter what age they are they could be vulnerable the first time

Although the 5 year old knew not to get into the security officer's car. And he clearly was an okay security guard....what if he wasn't or if it was another person with ill-intent. He may still have said no to getting into a strangers car but do you think someone with intent to harm a child would have accepted a simple no?

I sarted school full time at 5 years and 1 month. Walked to school by myself, had to cross a main road, with heavy traffic and busses, then let myself in with a key when I go back home at 2pm until my mother got home from work at 5pm. Snack was ready for me always, but that was it. I just went out to play with the other children in the complex, with the key around my neck in a piece of string!!. It was quite normal in the early 50s I understand, yet in school photos from the first 5 years, only few of us had the key showing.

It could be Einstein , but 5 is still too young to be out on your own and near water in my opinion NotSpaghetti

We use to play out at six, but there was a gang of us. We would go down to the bluebell woods.
Would I allow my kids to do that in this day & age - not a chance.

Years ago Muriel Gray (Scottish TV celeb) 4 yr old daughter was found in the garden face down in shallow pond. Not quite drowned or dead; kept alive by medics but extremely severely, permanently brain damaged from lack of oxygen.
:-(

There's walks and there's walks .
Letting a 5 year old go off unsupervised may not end in disaster but is negligent .
What we did 70 or 75 years ago is irrelevant. Communities were more closely knit, there was infinitely less traffic, everybody knew everybody and it was second nature to look out for children. Now you risk being accused of being a busybody at best, a paedophile at worst if you take an unaccompanied (possibly lost) child by the hand and attempt to reunite him or her with a parent.

BlessedArt

Yes I’m sure the government there, which has a child protective agency overwhelmed by cases, simply wants control over the children. The security guard and the local police are all in on it…

Conspiracy theory?
In a parallel universe perhaps

BlueBelle

It could be Einstein , but 5 is still too young to be out on your own and near water in my opinion NotSpaghetti

Maybe the child has more common sense than Albert Einstein. (I don’t know if AE had any common sense 😂)
Sounds like this lad had, not to enter that Security guards car.

M0nica

May be the only house they liked just happened to be in a gated community. Thee are a remarkable lot of them about.

We live in a back street close to a town centre. Recently a builders yard in the street was turned into a close of really quite small terrace 'mews'houses, nothing outside the ordinary - it is gated - I suspect it has nothing to do with security ad everything to do with stopping unauthorised parking. The houses are narrow, parking is limited, even for residents and the street has few parking places. We often have cars parked outside our house even though it is a in a 'no parking' area.

It doesn't sound like that kind of gated community, though, which I have seen in England where neighbours probably know each other.

It has parklands, ponds, wetlands, Woodlands, golf course, thousands of residents, security guards.

I agree with most of what has been said.I was allowed out at an early age.We lived in an area although built up we were almost surrounded by fields and woods.My own children in the 70's played out about 7 quite happily but I would be more careful now

In England if a child of five was found unsupervised, looking for feathers by a pond near his house by or that rare beast, the local Bobby or community support officer it would be a safeguarding issue. The same if a kind member of the public had called police.
An officer would escort the child home and discuss concerns with the parent. Police records would be checked to ensure this to be an isolated incident. Providing the parent accepted an error of judgement had been made and was cooperative in demeanour the police would leave the child home. The parent would be told Child Protection social workers would be in touch.
SW would get a written report from police and the allocated sw may speak with the officer and do a record check before visiting parents. If no other concerns were highlighted about the five year old or other children, it’s likely parents would have been advised about better ways of enabling age appropriate freedom. Unlikely to go to a safeguarding conference unless the basic initial investigation raised additional concerns

The names of parents are not out put on an at risk register, the children are, initially for three or six months with reasons and work to reduce risk identified.

I don’t know enough about American safeguarding services but it seems mum’s response was to stand her ground, imply she and her husband knew more about child care than those expressing concern. Seven years - how can that be ok? Unless the reasons haven’t been made public

it seems mum’s response was to stand her ground, imply she and her husband knew more about child care than those expressing concern.

Yes, that was part of the problem. She could not see that perhaps she had made an error of judgement.

win

I sarted school full time at 5 years and 1 month. Walked to school by myself, had to cross a main road, with heavy traffic and busses, then let myself in with a key when I go back home at 2pm until my mother got home from work at 5pm. Snack was ready for me always, but that was it. I just went out to play with the other children in the complex, with the key around my neck in a piece of string!!. It was quite normal in the early 50s I understand, yet in school photos from the first 5 years, only few of us had the key showing.

Latch door key kid ☺️
We never had a key just played out until parents came home. Obviously didn’t trust us to be in the house by ourselves 😂

BlueBelle

There are many gated communities in US it’s a thing over there all my American relatives live in gated communities seems horrible to me but there you go, they love it. nothing to do with government control, I suppose it’s the closest they can get to a village it’s just a community with a few little convenience stores usually a swimming pool etc with a gate out and in like when you go to a caravan park in England and that’s not government controlled 🤣🤣🤣
Blessed Art a vivid imagination there Perhaps they chain them up at night to control them 🤣

Of course it has nothing to do with government control. It’s a basic safeguarding issue.

MawsRosie

There's walks and there's walks .
Letting a 5 year old go off unsupervised may not end in disaster but is negligent .
What we did 70 or 75 years ago is irrelevant. Communities were more closely knit, there was infinitely less traffic, everybody knew everybody and it was second nature to look out for children. Now you risk being accused of being a busybody at best, a paedophile at worst if you take an unaccompanied (possibly lost) child by the hand and attempt to reunite him or her with a parent.

I know what you mean. I said to this young mum with pram at the hospital, did she want to leave the child in its pram with me (I don’t know what I was thinking 🤦‍♀️) whilst she went in for her examination.
She just put her head back & laughed loudly (as if to say no chance 😳do you know what I don’t blame her. Like I said I don’t know what I was thinking!

MawsRosie

There's walks and there's walks .
Letting a 5 year old go off unsupervised may not end in disaster but is negligent .
What we did 70 or 75 years ago is irrelevant. Communities were more closely knit, there was infinitely less traffic, everybody knew everybody and it was second nature to look out for children. Now you risk being accused of being a busybody at best, a paedophile at worst if you take an unaccompanied (possibly lost) child by the hand and attempt to reunite him or her with a parent.

Yes.

That gated community has an area of 3,000 to 3,200 acres
It is not a few houses with a garden and a small pond.

My Mum wasn't keen on me or my sister playing outside because she thought the local kids were a bit "common" and didn't like us mixing with them but sometimes she did, especially for playing in the snow - but we had to stick to the top end of our road and the trees and sandpit opposite. However, if she needed spuds she would send me (pre-school age), with the necessary 4d, down the road to buy them from the Market Garden shop.

I remember one Winter she allowed my sister and I (she about 8 and me about 6) to walk alone the 2 miles to visit an Aunty. Dad arrived later to take us home in the Austin 7 as he was afraid we would not make it back before dark. At about that age we were also allowed to walk the mile into the next town together, to get refills for our paint boxes and rubber moulds to make garden ornaments.

Of course, there was virtually no traffic to worry about back then and everybody knew nearly everybody else.

BlueBelle

*because there has obviously been a proliferation of danger in the last 20 or so years That’s what they seem to think *
well thar may well be true , or maybe we just hear about it so much more now, but either way why would you want to send a 5 year old out on their own, what is gained? there are other safer ways to learn independence … getting dressed by themselves, making their packed lunch, getting their bags ready for school making their bed etc Why does going out alone at 5 need to be so important? Children like Ben Needham or more recently that little Australian boy called Gus were just near their house playing alone weren’t they ? those are just a couple of names that come into my head
How many children and adults are in the news every week as missing, murdered, lost for no known reason, every day almost there are headlines
Why would you dream of putting a child of that age at risk
Children of 6/7 are out at work in some countries does that make it right ?
There is such a short window of time to be able to protect our children surely that’s more important than sending them off into the countryside alone, even taking the ‘baddies’ out of the equation he could fall crack his head open, he could fall in the water, he could be attacked by a dog.

I personally feel honoured that I had a few years to look after my kids and I was never over protective I just had, I think sensible parameters.

Exactly right BlueBelle. We may hear more about kids being abducted,or falling into ponds than we used to, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t happening. We just didn’t know about it! Even decades ago no way would I let a 5 - FIVE ! - year out on their own. Not sure about 7 years on tbe Register, does seem a bit much, but if that teaches the parent to PARENT and look after the smaller ones then so be it! An accident can happen at any age…! But at 5….! I’m sorry but those of you gaily saying but “I walked to school at 5” … you shouldn’t have. I bet you met up with friends or parents/friends en route to keep you safe or hardly much traffic then etc. I’m 80and at 5 it was 1951… not many people had cars, etc.

And as we are talking here together , a little chap of 3 who was with a guardian at a play park in Suffolk, has ran down an alleyway and four hours later the helicopters, police and dogs are out searching for him. Yes I know he was that little bit younger but he was with an adult and within a minute, he’s disappeared.
This is how tight the area between here and gone is
I hope this little chap is found, very soon, it’s starting to get dark, his family must be besides themselves

That lady in US needs to rethink her values

not all americans play snowflake crap
this was a HOA aholes in general these people are generally karens and kevins runthese places
the reason we made sure our home was not in one of these

look up villages in fl
www.villagescommunity.com/uploads/1/0/8/7/10872135/rules_and_regulations_2015.pdf

I really object to people using these names-Karen and Kevin in this derogatory way.
It may be an American meme but it demeans and insults people whose real names these are. 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬

Plevey08

Although the 5 year old knew not to get into the security officer's car. And he clearly was an okay security guard....what if he wasn't or if it was another person with ill-intent. He may still have said no to getting into a strangers car but do you think someone with intent to harm a child would have accepted a simple no?

Not SO friendly if he scared the boy.

In the fifties the number of children who drowned per year was on average about 400. In the 2020s the average is 30 -40.

Mother put on child abuse register for letting her 5 year old go for a walk!124
13/09/2026 20:48 GrandmaKT