tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3141759542968821728.post5438695500756465643..comments2024-01-01T16:01:35.711+00:00Comments on Dick Puddlecote: Allowing Kids Independence Is Not Child AbuseDick Puddlecotehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01481866882188932892noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3141759542968821728.post-59612393263503105752010-05-29T11:59:11.351+01:002010-05-29T11:59:11.351+01:00I agree with you about the sad loss to modern chil...I agree with you about the sad loss to modern children of liberty and fun, Dick. Looking again at the William books I marvel at the freedoms which were accepted as normal for children in the 1940s. And the naval officer father of the Swallows and Amazons family allowed his seven-year-old to go sailing with the famous telegram: BETTER DROWNED THAN DUFFERS IF NOT DUFFERS WON'T DROWN.<br />My wife, reading some of this thread, comments that conditions were somewhat different 60 odd years ago. Few people had cars or even drove. People didn't move about much. Anyone who was a bit dodgy in the neighbourhood was well-known in the community and the children, who played in quite large groups, steered clear of them, even regarding the odd flasher as a bit of a joke. Above all, adults looked out for children and would not have been afraid to intervene if they saw any child in danger of any kind. Another Brentford memory: of small boys being passed down by the packed crowd over their heads so they could see more at the front of the terrace.<br /><br />So where can we go from here?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3141759542968821728.post-83288743306499963482010-05-29T11:25:23.534+01:002010-05-29T11:25:23.534+01:00Great comments and anecdotes. :-)
Fanshawe: Your ...Great comments and anecdotes. :-)<br /><br />Fanshawe: Your experience in the 1970s is sad, but what parents seem to have lost sight of is that, as Corrugated Sounbite says, these instances are extremely rare. <br /><br />What's the sayiong? Shit happens? Well, for the overwhelming majority of the time ... it doesn't. The loss of freedom, fun and independence, though, is vast and damaging to family life as well as the karma of the country in general IMO.Dick Puddlecotehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01481866882188932892noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3141759542968821728.post-8543625130674740652010-05-29T10:27:58.987+01:002010-05-29T10:27:58.987+01:00Pure nostalgia but only the other day I was lookin...Pure nostalgia but only the other day I was looking up some of my heroes at Brentford Football Club in the 1940s when boys from my road travelled by tube to watch them at Griffin Park. A twopenny iced bun was a treat as we raced back to South Ealing station on our way home in the twilight (change at Acton Town). I was about eight or nine when this began. None of us was more than 11 or 12. I don't think the war was quite over when we started supporting Brentford. We also had our own football and cricket teams, named the Whitton Avenue Wanderers, and we organised matches against neighbouring roads which we played at the nearest park which was about 25 minutes walk away. Oh, and Billy Gorman, bald and brilliant right back for Brentford, I read that you are no longer with us, but thank you for sending me the team autographs. People said you always answered letters and they were right. Memories too of right winger Dai Hopkins and centre forward Fred Durrant and goalkeeper Joe Crozier and.....and now I'm 74.<br /><br />Sadly, to be fair, I have to say as a postscript, that when my own children were at primary school in the 1970s I sent them out to play in the long grass of a sunny field one hot summer's day, and they came back very quickly to say that a strange man had approached them. They didn't go out again on their own.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3141759542968821728.post-12755580541469096552010-05-29T09:05:18.474+01:002010-05-29T09:05:18.474+01:00Living in Hackney at the time my daughter was allo...Living in Hackney at the time my daughter was allowed down to the shops from the age of 8.<br /><br />I was at a barbecue in the afternoon and my then 5 year son when my back was turned, decided to exhibit some independence and set off to find his daytime carer. So after crossing 2 roads and walking 500 yards he knocked on her door. He must have tremendous spatial awareness.<br /><br />After a don't panic Mr. Mainwaring moment I was just about to set out and scour the streets, phone the police and write to the Daily Mail. Just leaving the front door he had led his carer back to where we were.<br /><br />What is even more remarkable is has Downs Syndrome.DaveAhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07249090980650806030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3141759542968821728.post-2762011503653602622010-05-29T06:14:46.833+01:002010-05-29T06:14:46.833+01:00"Yet I remember going to school on my own in ...<i>"Yet I remember going to school on my own in the 1960s at the age of 6."</i> <br /><br />Whenever I take a Tube journey into London with my mother, she never fails to tell me how she used to travel on it to school on her own, a journey that would be unthinkable for modern parents...<br /><br /><i>"This ridiculous lot who toe the line don't have a thought in their heads between them."</i> <br /><br />Working as intended...JuliaMhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07844126589712842477noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3141759542968821728.post-84082834487159372342010-05-29T05:27:25.579+01:002010-05-29T05:27:25.579+01:00"But those are the exceptions. That’s why the..."But those are the exceptions. That’s why they make it to the news."<br /><br />A point which can't be made often enough. Events only make it to the news because they are rare. Therefore, counter-intuitively, anything the news warns you about can be pretty much ignored.Roue le Jourhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09099318677226041054noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3141759542968821728.post-13935256860946456732010-05-29T02:00:43.274+01:002010-05-29T02:00:43.274+01:00There are one or two Righteous where I work. Very ...There are one or two Righteous where I work. Very confused people (they seem to be Righteous due to too much exposure to the BBC, as opposed to any kind of vested interest). <br /><br />When I mentioned that kids should be allowed to kick a ball around in the park, or go out on little adventures on their bikes as I used to when I was a child, I was blasted as someone who "wants children to have accidents". Someone who wants them to be abducted and molested by paedophiles. My initial reply was that when you run over a rock once on your bike, fall off and graze your knees and wrists, you generally pay more attention in future, thus becoming more aware of obstacles in general and you are in fact <i>reducing</i> the risk of further grazed knees and wrists. <br /><br />When I suggested after her kiddy fiddler point that convicted paedophiles should be removed from society for a very very long time, I was blasted as someone who didn't want an "inclusive society that rehabilitates people out in the open". I retorted as to what this Righteous suggested an "inclusive society" was, and if that <i>included</i> children being couped up indoors, in cars, and in institutionalised buildings all day, every day, as opposed to spending a bit of free time developing social skills with their friends in a less supervised envirnoment. I questioned as to what was worse; very occasional grazed knees or the lifelong physical and psychological scarring inflicted by the nowhere-near-as-common-as-she-thinks paedos she wants "included" back into wider society. Cue glazed stare. <br /><br />The real Righteous and our political Elite of course know this is all bollocks aimed at keeping people scared, divided and indoors (apart from when they're out spending). This ridiculous lot who toe the line don't have a thought in their heads between them. I've almost given up on trying to un-re-educate them.Corrugated Soundbitehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17305817712647242394noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3141759542968821728.post-60394241368735795922010-05-28T22:36:05.338+01:002010-05-28T22:36:05.338+01:00I was discussing this at work the other day. The g...I was discussing this at work the other day. The general consensus was that kids shouldn't be allowed to go to and from school on their own until they reached secondary school age, or maybe at a pinch 9 or 10. Yet I remember going to school on my own in the 1960s at the age of 6. We even, until it was withdrawn, had a school bus to take kids home for lunch and back again - something unthinkable today.Curmudgeonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02558747878308766840noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3141759542968821728.post-28451996901596446142010-05-28T22:27:27.503+01:002010-05-28T22:27:27.503+01:00So...how many people have suffered heart attacks t...So...how many people have suffered heart attacks through lack of teeth cleaning - eh?JJhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05239651363530826401noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3141759542968821728.post-85177399437362640982010-05-28T22:26:54.963+01:002010-05-28T22:26:54.963+01:00I bet the righteous would be horrified that I take...I bet the righteous would be horrified that I take my 7 year old son on the back of my motorbike.<br /><br />Quite predictably he loves it!Man with Many Chinshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06248880738395410731noreply@blogger.com