"dont let kids outside!"

boatman

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Feb 20, 2007
2,444
8
78
Cornwall
I'm feeling old with all this. When ours were little they would vanish for the day sometimes. Coming home but from school one of us would meet the bus but if a parent didn't turn up the spare children would be taken home by one of the other parents and generally fed until their parent turned up or was seen to get home.
 

Ed the Ted

Forager
Dec 13, 2013
144
41
Scotland
The other day I spent an afternoon chopping and splitting logs with chainsaw and a couple of axes, aided by a 3 year old. There were some strict rules, like he had to shout 'ready steady gooooooooooooooooo' and 'ready steady choooooooooooooppp', all from an agreed safe distance, before coming back over to put another log on the block for me. Not even my kid. His parents were quite happy with it all. Heaven knows what would happen if Wiltshire council got wind of it (had it even been on their turf!).
 

XRV John

Nomad
Jan 23, 2015
256
26
Scunthorpe
Whilst I know that child safeguarding is a top priority (working for a local authority, in charge of the bins, and me and all the bin men have had to do an awareness course on what to look out for and the people to contact if we suspect anything) this does seem over the top. But reading that is some nosey busy body using bureaucracy to attack you helps to explain - they know the system and are using it pursue their own misguided agenda.

Best of luck. I hope common sense prevails, this goes away, and the busy body gets their come uppence

goodjob
 

boatman

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Feb 20, 2007
2,444
8
78
Cornwall
Being older may I say that we love the children playing outside in our cul-de-sac. I can also remember being shouted at for doing the same in a Brixton street in the 1950s.
"The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers."- Socrates/Plato.
 

Lacijag1

Forager
Now this is something I've never heard of.
It just shows how much the world has changed in a couple of decades.
I was a kid in the late 80's early 90's. I grew up in a small village in Hungary. Then and there we had no computer games, mobile phones or all day long tv programs for kids like cbeebies. We spent afternoons unsupervised on the play ground or scouting in the local woods. Some times we did get injuries but that was ok, that's how we got tough:)
Now days, looks like this is not really acceptable to let the kids go ,,wild'' the world has changed a lot!
 

xylaria

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
I can see where in some cases where there can be genuine issues with kids been outside all the time. If say you have kids out late at night, or their parents are actually throwing them out for hours at time to fend for themselves. The problem with effect malicious calls is that they can make healthy outdoorsy kids sound like the type of family where dad is always on the lash or mums on the game and the kids have got no reasonable home to go to for several hours each day.
 

santaman2000

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Jan 15, 2011
16,909
1,120
68
Florida
I can see where in some cases where there can be genuine issues with kids been outside all the time. If say you have kids out late at night, or their parents are actually throwing them out for hours at time to fend for themselves.......

I understand your point, but to be honest "hours" isn't really very long. As a kid I stayed out pretty much all day on no-school days. We'd get up early, grab the bikes or saddle our horses and take off until suppertime. That was from around age 9 or so. At about age 12 we'd spend the day on the river swimming and exploring the rapids and waterfalls.

Our parents were at work. It was our grandparents who would stay at home for us.
 
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Goatboy

Full Member
Jan 31, 2005
14,956
18
Scotland
I suppose I'm of Santaman's generation. I'd be off out before my folks got up at the holidays unless there were chores and they'd only worry if I was late back for the evening meal unless I'd made arrangements.
 

xylaria

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
I understand your point, but to be honest "hours" isn't really very long. As a kid I stayed out pretty much all day on no-school days. We'd get up early, grab the bikes or saddle our horses and take off until suppertime. That was from around age 9 or so. At about age 12 we'd spend the day on the river swimming and exploring the rapids and waterfalls.

Our parents were at work. It was our grandparents who would stay at home for us.
That is normal happy childhood. Fishs kids have a happy childhood. Some kids dont get that, Years ago I lived opposite a family that would lock the seven year old out of the house. There was adults in the house when this happened. Even 30 minutes of this would make her cry. Eventually the house got a drug raid. The problem with malicious complaints is making what is normal sound bad, it also drains resources away from proper cases.
 

Toddy

Mod
Mod
Jan 21, 2005
39,133
4,810
S. Lanarkshire
It might simply be because Fishfish's kids are home schooled, so they are seen outside playing when other children are in school, that has raised concerns. Home schooled doesn't mean 9 til 3.30 mostly stuck indoors.

M
 

santaman2000

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Jan 15, 2011
16,909
1,120
68
Florida
That is normal happy childhood. Fishs kids have a happy childhood. Some kids dont get that, Years ago I lived opposite a family that would lock the seven year old out of the house. There was adults in the house when this happened. Even 30 minutes of this would make her cry. Eventually the house got a drug raid. The problem with malicious complaints is making what is normal sound bad, it also drains resources away from proper cases.

Understood. That's why I said "I see your point..."

It might simply be because Fishfish's kids are home schooled, so they are seen outside playing when other children are in school, that has raised concerns. Home schooled doesn't mean 9 til 3.30 mostly stuck indoors.

M

I thought of that too. Very possible, or as somebody already posted, maybe they just don't like home schooling.
 

mountainm

Bushcrafter through and through
Jan 12, 2011
9,990
12
Selby
www.mikemountain.co.uk
Reminds me of this photo I found some years ago:
https://www.dropbox.com/sc/zkp7hr88zkj5rbs/AAAYOZ3b39XnP7gI7cAYdkoDa

Sad really, children should be out and about exploring things.


I was discussing this with my mum, talking about my kids. Our conclusion was that traffic plays a large part in it. When my mum was a lass she'd cycle 10+ miles aged 9 with her brother on an adventure promising to be "back for tea" - but there were hardly any cars on the road.

When I was a lad we used to play all over the culdesac and I'd be off in the woods 3 miles away on my bike with my mates - back in time for tea. No mobile phones.

Now, I'd let my 9 year old go play in the fields but none of the other parents will let theirs - I wouldn't want him to go alone so he tends not to go off exploring. The main road through our village is very busy so I'd rather he wasn't cycling about on that on his own.

Sad times.
 

superc0ntra

Nomad
Sep 15, 2008
333
3
Sweden
Agree on the part about traffic but sadly a lot of kids cannot play out of sight from their parents even away from big roads.
 
Feb 21, 2015
393
0
Durham
It might simply be because Fishfish's kids are home schooled, so they are seen outside playing when other children are in school, that has raised concerns. Home schooled doesn't mean 9 til 3.30 mostly stuck indoors.

M

Agree 100%! I had friends that Homeschooled their kids. By 10 years old those kids could Bake bread from scratch, cook, use a washing machine, had a reading and writing level far beyond their years, were happy, and have turned out into the most awesome adults. They are far far far nicer, more level headed and more settled than anyone I know that went to a 'normal' school.
Keep up the good work fishfish, and remember "descendite et noli pavere ***********!
 
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mick91

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
May 13, 2015
2,064
8
Sunderland
Personally I can't see any problem with kids being outside and cycling and don't know how people could. Often see the ankle biter out in the garden picking up worms and playing about. In the words of my dad, a mucky bairn is a happy bairn
 

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