Best way to protect your child?

DoubleDoors

peachyprice wrote: »

At 16 the best you can do for her is stop treating her like a little girl.

Gotta say, we were getting 2 buses to and from secondary school from the age of 11 onwards.

Then again I had a colleague who was in her early 20s and her parents still wouldn't let her get on a train on her own :eek:

To answer the OP, an attack alarm might be worth getting if she's likely to be walking anywhere dodgy, but bear in mind the alarm has to be 'handy' ie. in your pocket. No use having it in your bag..

badmemory

Her best protection is to be aware of her surroundings. Too many now walk around with earplugs in BOTH ears and barely even look where they are going. If she looks alert no-one will come near because she will have seen them coming (& will be able to identify them) & won't be taken by surprise. The trial run mentioned is a good idea too.

maman

I do understand your concerns OP but do try to stop worrying and see it as another step in growing up.


My DGD went from being able to walk to school to a 6th Form 15 miles away. She caught a train every day for 2 years having never been on a bus or train alone before. It's probably too late now for you but we did do the journey with her during the school holidays to show her the best route walking route from station to college.


4 years on she's at university in London. She's on the buses, tube, DLR etc etc.


She'll cope. Keep talking about being sensible but don't frighten her.:)

theoretica

She needs to protect herself. If she is interested, a good self defence course would probably be worth looking into. Have someone other than you tell her about awareness and getting out of situations before they start.

Also awareness of just how hard people dressed in dark colours can be for drivers to see. Would she be open to any nice reflective badges for her bag?

annandale

She'll be on a bus. That will presumably have cctv. I don't disagree that self defence is a good idea but what on earth do you think is going to happen to someone on a bus at 4pm in the afternoon that presumably other people will be on?

Nathaniel_Essex

She's old enough to take care of herself. At 16, she is exposed to no more danger than she would be 5 years down the line when she has to commute to work everyday. My sister carries a legal key ring knife she got of Amazon and makes sure it's always in a position where she can get to it (i.e. not in the bottom of her handbag).

Spendless

I think the best thing you can do to protect your child is to have expereince and a dummy run/s and talk through any contingency plans.

Personally, I've always been a fan of starting things in the spring months when there's more day-light and in anticipation of a new change in the Autumn. My Neice and Nephew have jsut started sixth form college and are catching buses for the first time. My sister did a dummy run with them during the summer. My 14yo has been catching buses over our town since Easter, but slipped up during the summer when she didn't read the bus number at the stop she normally caught and ended up in another area. In that case I told her to get off near shops and ring me with the shop name. I then googled the postcode (I was at work 17 miles away and unable to get out) and then rang my parents (thank goodness for retired grandparents) to go and collect her. Without this, she knows all our buses travel into the town centre and stop, so she'd have needed to get off the bus, cross the road and catch the next bus in the opposite direction back to her starting point.

Other things she can do is ensure her mobile phone is charged up, always have some cash on her or a debit card etc.

richardw

Go out in the dark and look at the walking route from school to the first bus stop and assess the street lighting, do the same at the bus changing point and the where she gets off the bus to walk home route, if there are any obvious unlit parts then look for a better street lighting route.

Marvel1

If anything nowadays with mobiles it's safer when lost so you can ring.

pearl123

geek84 wrote: »

Good Morning Folks

I hope you're well. My daughter recently started 6th form school, and she needs to catch 2 different buses in order to get to her new school. She has never caught a bus before, and with the dark and cold evenings coming soon, I am worried for her safety.

Is there anything that I can do in order to ensure she is ok? She already has a mobile phone which she can use any time to tell me if she needs any sort of help.

I am thinking of a personal safety alarm or something similar?

Thanks

Just let her get on with it.
She certainly does not need a personal safety alarm.
Don't project your fears upon her. Overprotection can cause issues later on in life.
Many of use coped in our youth getting the bus without a mobile phone!