Using public transport as a child

Of course public transport was more plentiful 40/50 years ago. Hard to socialise as a teenager when there are only one or two buses a day in villages. Parents have no option but to ferry the children around.

I count myself lucky we lived in small town when my daughter was growing up. We walked everywhere. She walked home from primary school when she was nearing leaving age. I would arrive home from work just a minute or two before her.

Once she started secondary school she and her friends would regularly travel by train into the city (15 minute journey and a more regular timetable and cheaper than the bus service) on a Saturday, but not if there was a football match on. All us Mum's were pretty much in agreement with that. However a rugby match was a different matter and it was considered OK. Not to generalise but the rugby fans were far better behaved than the football fans!!

All this was in the 90's and Noughties.

When I started grammar school at the age of 11. My primary schools were in walking distance.

Walked 1.25 miles to primary with friend after DMs had escorted us on first day. Walked to secondary 2 miles again with friends. Travelled on bus from aged 7 going into town and return for dance lessons. Never had my own bike but used to "borrow" my brother's and cycle around local area, woukd be 7, 8ish. Young folk are driven everywhere as they seem to find it difficult to walk. How on earth would they manage to text, scroll, read all their Apps if they had to watch out for traffic. I live in a small residential area. 125 properties were added as an extension to the original 22 properties. Initially the new children walked to the end of the road, approx 1/4 walked as had the children from original houses done over many years to meet school bus. 3 buses for 2 secondary and 1 primary needed. The incomers thought this was awful, expecting their children to walk all that distance twice a day as, when it rained, they got wet. Also, when the grassed area was mowed, children cut across this instead of walking on footpath, their shoes took grass into their house. Absolute tragedy! The local authiruty agreed as there was no extra cost, to have the 3 buses navigate the narrow street, having to reverse into a small road to enable them to drive out. There is no through road. Nightmare if you meet a bus on the tight bend half way along road. Don't see many children on bikes now but plenty on electric scooters. That's why children need to be driven everywhere, they get wet when it rains and they take grass into their homes when the grass is cut. There was a bit of a protest based on tge chijdren at keast got some exercise walking to and from the bus stop and there was a social element anticipating they would perhaps speak to one another en route. Completely wasted effort.

I will be forever grateful to my parents for encouraging independence in me from a very early age

I dont think it was a matter of encouraging independence with my parents - more getting us out from under their feet.

The attitude to parenting then was that you did not allow small children (and expecially babies) to dominate the household. Babies were fed, burped, changed and then put down to sleep at set times. If they cried they were left to it. Our parents had gone through the war in a city center (Liverpool was bombed extensively) and had learned to "get on with things" without undue sentiment. As kids we were subjected to tough love which was supposed to make us resilient.

Most of my friends got whalloped at some time or another.

barbadoesbelle at 14, on my exchange trip to Paris, I was shocked to see ‘Defense de cracher’ (No spitting) signs on the Metro. Did people really have to be told not to do it? 😱

Witzend

barbadoesbelle at 14, on my exchange trip to Paris, I was shocked to see ‘Defense de cracher’ (No spitting) signs on the Metro. Did people really have to be told not to do it? 😱

I think I remember us having signs around swimming pools about not spitting when I was a child (late 'sixties, probably) here in England.
Does anyone else remember those, or is it a false memory?

My mother took me to infant school on the first day, after that I had to take myself, crossing two minor roads and one main road, there was no lollipop person and remember clearly almost getting run over by a bus!

I had been sent to the shops before I went to school so I knew the way. I had just turned 5 when I started.

Going to senior school I was given bus money but used to walk, about a mile and a half each way. Nobody at home when I left and came back so it didn't matter how long it took me. I had a few pennies to spend on sweets that way. By 13/14 I was getting the bus/tube into London, Carnaby Street and Kensington for the Biba shop. I loved it.

I was 11. I can’t have been much older when I’d catch the bus into Liverpool and Southport also, but I’d be with friends. We had regular and plentiful busses. Now we have one an hour. My daughter started using it alone when she was 11.

Different time,different world... sadly

I walked to school alone after the first week, so not quite five and had to cross a major trunk road.
At seven I was getting a bus into the city centre to go to Saturday morning cinema.
My children walked to their primary school after the first couple of days, the school is in the next street. From the age of eleven they travelled to the next city, bus, train and metro and leaving the house at 7.15 am.
At school run time my street is full of cars, you never see a child walking on their own.

I started using 2 busses to go to and from school at 7 years old. One bus into Sheffield city centre changing to bus for school and the reverse to go home. this was in 1958 I certainly wouldn't have let my children do this at 7.

I think one of the reason one would not let a 7 year old travel alone these days is because nobody else does. Was it an ordinary everyday affair for children of that age to be seen travelling alone, we would all accept it.

There is also safety in numbers. If lots of children travelled around alone and in groups, no one would take any notice of them, one travelling alone, when it is not the norm looks uniquely vulnerable.

While we know far more these days about child abuse of all kinds, there is no evidence at all that the probabilities of stranger danger have grown, just the dangers in the home.

From the age of 10 I would take the bus into Birmingham go into Lewis’s and visit the Toy Dept and small Zoo on the roof, just a few rabbits etc. Then I would cross the road to Barrows and go to the cafe and have an orange squash and a chocolate cake with a face on it. Finally catching the bus home.

It has stood me in good stead for now at 77 I am happy to go to a cafe on my own and read my Kindle.

When I started school our cleaner's 10 year old daughter collected me, as she had to walk past the door and she walked the couple of hundred yards between home and school with me.

Curiously, I have no memories of how I got home from school. on my own, with the same other child, or whether my mother met me (which seems the most familair when I write it down here.)

At 6 years old I walked a mile with my 8 year old sister then caught a bus to my first school,4 miles away