Children travelling alone on public transport

This thread is beginning to sound like a spin off from The Three Yorkshire Men sketch

Busses, luxury, we used do three shifts down’t’pit or int’mill then go t’school, then we’d play out ont’main road till tea time

When I started school, age 5, the nearest one was about 4 miles away so I went by bus. My mother,and other new starts mothers, travelled with us for the first week then we were on out own. I remember the bus driver used to come into the school on the occasions he was running late to make sure we didn't get into trouble.

I was 6, put on a greenline bus to Hemel Hempstead (think that's how it's spelled) and met at the other end by my Aunt. I'd stay a couple of days and then be sent back to my Grandmother the same way. I went to school on the bus from age 7 and tubetrain to senior school at 9/10. Always preferred the tube.

biglouis I was 7 when I got the bus from Stanley Hospital Kirkdale to Billy Tunda(the rotunda) to meet my Mum at my Nana's. I don't often used to use my Scooter to get there.! X

From aged nine I would get the bus to Belfast with 3 friends. We were going to the swimming baths. Only one girl was sure of the route. The rest of us just followed. In retrospect I think our mothers were crazy to let us do this.

My two are in their late 30’s. They used the bus into town or city centre from high school age. We drove them to university open days, it was positive for all of us.
Their older boys are 8 and 9 years old and are driven or walked everywhere. It’s difficult to measure the kind of freedom our generation had, busses to the cinema or swimming pool from about age 9, with the tighter supervision mine had and very little freedom my grandchildren have.

Traffic is the main danger. Then, parents are blamed if things go wrong. Eg one summer we spent hours ‘fishing’ in a farmers pond. We’d all been warned by parents not to go there, I couldn’t swim so had v strict instructions. We were all very careful to keep our socks n shoes dry ‘your mum will kill you if you get wet, she’ll know you’ve been here’, the wise older kids said. This was in the days when you’d leave home after breakfast with a sandwich, apple, bottle water/pop and magically reappear at tea time

I caught a local bus to my piano lessons when I was about 8 and it was a request stop which worrried me the first couple of times. Then from age 11 I caught a bus for the 3 mile journey to secondary school, as did other pupils and several of our teachers.

I went to school either on foot or bus 7 and at 9 I was in charge of my brother. My DDs flew to UK/ China at 8 tagged and by themselves once they were accepted not to be tagged by the airlines (12/14) and my DGD 10 tagged from Australia which there was a change of planes. My DDs 10, traveled by Parisian buses or trains to school. All without mobile phones.

Never took my son on uni visits. I think he would have been mortified if I'd even suggested it to him.
I only started taking buses at age 11 to go to grammar school and remember checking my new purse so many times during the day to make sure I still had my bus fare home. Apart from this I was used to walking everywhere and so were my friends.

All 3 of mine went to Uni open days on their own. They may well have met up with others they knew who were also going but no parental escorts. All Unis in major cities quite some distance away. I started travelling on buses on my own when 10 years old, basic journey from home to High Street. Think my parents gave me menial tasks just for the experience eg go to M & S for a fruit loaf, butcher for sausages, all safe stuff, and I knew where I was going in the High Street.

Just remembered when I was 15 I went to Paris, travelling with a school friend by train to London, then with a small group by train and ferry. After the course I stayed with my penfriend. Her father collected me but at the end of my stay I made my way home alone, including a ferry, Dieppe to Newhaven.

Haha I remember men like this, we soon learnt how to deal with them 🤣

As a 7 year old in 1950sI was put on a bus and the driver was told where I should get off. My aunt met me after about a 100 mile trip.
I wouldn't like the. idea of my GGDs using public transport on their own now. Even a short trip.

My children were raised to be independent travellers on public transport and we never got into the habit of ferrying them around as they all had bicycles and the town we live in is reasonable small. However, my husband and I took turns accompanying our sons to university open days, at their request, so that we could discuss the pros and cons of each.

My grandchildren only ever travel on buses and trains when they stay with me and they find it a great adventure. All of them have bicycles though and I expect when they’re older they’ll get around by bike.

lol this is something we were discussing other day my Dil parents. Step grandson is 13 never been on a bus alone goes to cinema with friends gets dropped off and picked up when he’s ready my 13yr old granddaughter gets bus to school. We said step grandson should get bus. I was getting on bus about 6 I was going all over on bus with my friends by time I was 11 no mobile phones then. We are bringing these kids up not independent they never going to learn to stand on their own two feet if you do everything for them. We won’t pick him up we tell him to get a bus lol

We had a house move on the last day of summer term, my last day of junior. I had to collect my younger sister from primary and get two buses to.get to.the new house. Did not enjoy it.

My children travelled by bus and train to school in the next city from the age of eleven. At thirteen DD flew from Germany via Amsterdam unaccompanied. At sixteen and fourteen DD and DS flew to Germany from Heathrow to spend several weeks with their aunt and uncle.
DD used to travel to London as a teenager and stay overnight to sit music exams at the Royal college of music. She learned to be very indepe
My GD never rode on a bus until she was sixteen.

When I went for my only university interview - and no open days in the 1960s - I went alone from my home in south London to Newcastle upon Tyne and back again.

My father ws stationed in Germany so, as I was staying with relations and a few days before I started university the railway company van came round and collected my trunk and the next time I saw it was inmy room in hall. I travelled up on my own but met a fellow student on the train and we shared a taxi to our Hall of Residence.

Witzend I wonder if they had additional needs?

eazybee

I don't think the tutors are that thrilled when potential students visit with their sisters and their cousins and aunts who keep interrupting presentations with fatuous questions, and as for the parents who expect to be included in the interview, and those who want to stay on site for the first week; Well.

I remember hearing some chap saying he’d sat in with his son or daughter during their interview at Oxford. I thought, WTF?? Surely not!

Turned out it was actually Oxford Brookes. I was still amazed, though - I never heard of any parent sitting in on an actual interview - as opposed to e.g. general Open Day talks.

I was about 5. It was very deep snow and my Primary one teacher sent my home for lunch with a note to my
Mum, not to send me back. My Mum did not agree with this and gave me a penny to go back to school on the bus.
It was in 1945.

I went to my grans who lived about a mile from Liverpool city centre when I was about 12. It was over an hours bus ride from where I lived the outskirts of Liverpool.
Our junior school was only five mins walk away from my house my secondary school was just under two miles away. We walked hail rain or snow our mum couldn’t afford bus fare for us. It wasn’t far enough to get a bus pass I don’t even think we thought of applying for passes.
I often went into town to window shop there were some nice shops then in the 70s mostly gone now. By my teenage years I had stopped being travel sick so I didn’t mind the bus journey. I think we got the train just once but were put off by men hanging around in Lime street. We just felt better going by bus our mum was constantly telling us to keep away from dirty old men! They may well have been just waiting for trains but we took advice and steered clear of trains.

I caught the bus home (about 5 miles) from junior school - or walked to my father's business and waited till after 6pm for a lift home.

At 10 or so I went by train to the Isle of Wight. A friend of my father's crossed me across London and my aunt met me at the ferry.
By then I was at the grammar school and caught the bus the 8 or 9 miles home. Sometimes I walked into the city as if I missed the 4pm bus the 5pm one would sail straight by as it would be full.
I took busses to meet friends and to go window shopping from the time I went to grammar school.

My husband travelled round Europe at 15 (nearly 16) with a friend.
He was travelling to and fro from boarding school by train much younger than my IOW trip.

I was quite surprised to learn that DS2 had taken himself to Newcastle for a University interview. Then he decided to try Glasgow as well. I was not necessary either as driver or moral support. He decided on Glasgow and I had to take him there as there was so much baggage. But that was nothing compared to the amount that came back with him after four years!

My sons drove themselves to university interviews. They all learned to drive at school and passed their driving test the month they were old enough and thereafter drove my car more than I did.

I used to travel on the London tube to my dentist in Trafalgar Square from the age of eight and when I started at the grammar school either biked or went by bus as it was eight miles away.