Do we mollycoddle our children today?

I can remember having total freedom, especially in the school holidays and sometimes would stay out all day. We were often given jam sandwiches and told not to come back until tea time! We would go to the park, the woods and into town. Anything could have happened to us and our parents would have had no way of knowing. I do think today's kids are molly coddled but I think our generation didn't get enough attention.

My first day school was the only day that my Mum accompanied me to school. (60s)
My parents attended a yearly parents evening.
Christmas Carol concert.
Parents were not expected in school at any other time.
After an absence, it was just quick note for the teacher.

Unlike my grandsons, where parents or more usually grandparents seem to be in school weekly.
Children are handed over to known parent/grandparent etc.
If an emergency pick up then password is required.

Primary is in constant touch with parents via apps, Facebook and text.
Absences must be reported by 9.30am

At the same age that my grandsons are (5 and 6 yrs), If I returned home from school and my mum was out (work, shops) I would just get the toasting fork out and make myself some toast.

I suppose we are conditioned now by constant media news.

However, I am pleased that my grandchildren are looked after and would not have it any other way.

During my time at primary several children went missing and were sadly murdered.

At 6 I walked down to the Baker on the corner to buy bread. In Carlisle it gets dark very early and I did it whether it was dark or not.

When I was 8, living in Hong Kong, I caught a bus to and from school each day. It was 4 miles and when I lost my bus money I walked it. To be fair my mother was worried sick about where I was, and so relieved when I turned up. It never occurred to me to walk back to school and ask for help.

At 10, also in HongKong, my journey to school involved 2 buses and a ferry. I made the journey with my younger sister

At 13, I used to travel from Reading to Leicester Square to the Royal Dental Hospital every month. I had been doing the journey for at least a year with my mother, so knew the journey well.

At 16 I was on international flights with my younger sister, nominally in the charge of a hostess, but all her time was taken up by the young children so my sister and I were unsupervised. I got goosed for the first time in my life when a porter goosed me as I was getting into a minibus at Tehran Airport. A flight crew member saw it happen and came up to me and said quietly 'Next time someone does that to you kick him where it hurts.'

I took all this independence in my stride. A bit nervous, perhaps, the first time I made each journey, but certainly not traumatised.

Times have changed, there is so much more traffic and public transport is always crowded and we are much more aware of potential dangers, especially as there are now so few children on the streets compared when we were young.

When DS was 11 and his sister 9 we moved to live in a town a mile from the town centre. I promptly took them down to town by bus and walked them back so that they knew the route, DS was allowed to make the journey on his own, DD only with her brother until she was 11. By that time they were going off to secondary school on their own.

DGC's experience has been similar. At 11 DGD started walking a mile and a half to school in the morning and then back in the afternoon. Initially she did it with friends, but as they got involved in different extra curricular activities she now often makes the journey on her own. At 12 she and a friend weres allowed to travel into town together without an adult. They are both quite tall, DGD is 5ft 6in, so not obviously a child. She got a mobile phone when she went to secondary school.

I am a great believer in giving children as much freedom as possible as soon as possible. They need it for their own protection. Even back in my university days, I can remember fellow female students doing all sorts of dangerous things, because they had been so well looked after and protected throughout their childhood that they were utterly clueless and lacking in the street wisdom that I had been learning bit by bit since I was 6.

I used to spend days out with friends on our bikes. We went to the beach and cooked sausages on a small fire and were out all day. I didn't feel able to let my own children have the same freedom.

I’ve loved this thread. I really have! When I think of my grandchildren sometimes not even allowed to play outside and I think of my childhood and how I have to follow so many rules as a nursery practioner it beggars belief! I do keep my thoughts and past experiences to myself!?

Yes me too re the Dentist Urmstongran,

When I was 4 or 5 my father had gone to the pub which he didn’t often do. Mother decided to join him for the last half hour. This was in the days when pubs closed at 10.00.

Mum must have told me she had gone because I was very frightened and started calling for her. A neighbour heard, called up to me and asked what was wrong, where was mother, and went to fetch her. Mother was absolutely furious with me.

Ditto Harris!

You just reminded me of the flask of soup by my bed - ‘look at the clock and have your soup at midday’.

And going to the dentist on my own at 11y and taking my 9y old sister with me. Who was scared.

Beggars belief by today’s standards!

Yes similar experiences, definitely felt scared a lot of the time.
I don’t think we are different, but the world is ,or seems
to be more dangerous & people less trustworthy.
I don’t know if this is factually correct or if there are any statistics regarding this.

Reading this reminds me of my mam telling me to stay in bed till she got back home from work( dinner lady) she only did three hours but I had a flask of soup and the radio and my books and I only got out of bed to go to the loo!

I used to get the bus to primary school from the age of five! Sometimes I'd spend the bus fare on sweets and have to walk all the way home. I wasn't alone though, most of the children did it. This was the late 50's.