[WillowTheWhisp]

OK let me try to explain this again.

Slowly


For anyone who is still missing the point.


There is a youth club in Ossy.

People who run the youth club invited my daughters to go.

They have been once or twice - if my husband is home he has taken them in the car.

Once when my husband was not home I went with them by taxi and dropped them off there. My husband picked them up because he was home by then.

The organisers said not to bother with a taxi in future as they had a minibus for rhe specific purpose of picking people up who cannot be brought by parents for whatever reason. (Note this was their suggestion, not mine)

They have been a few times in the minibus.

Last week someone from the youth club phoned to speak to the girls to ask if they needed a lift the following day. When they phoned it was late and the girls had already gone to bed so I spoke to the person. I told him that the eldest one had other plans but as far as I was aware the youngest didn't have other plans and would like to go but my husband couldn't take her as he would be working.

The person from the youth club then told me to ask her to wait at the corner of Chester Street and they would pick her up from there.

I said "No." and explained that I didn't think it was safe for her to stand in such a place (see photos for the location, quite a lonely spot) so far from home in the dark. Even I, as an adult, would not like to stand down there on that corner alone in the dark.

At no point did I ever ask for this minibus. The minibus belongs to the youth club and I have been led to believe the purpose of the minibus is to transport kids to and from the youth club.

The person on the phone then said he would pick her up from home 'just this once'.

OK, if she wants to go in future and they ask her to meet in a dark lonely place again then my response will be the same and if they don't want to come to the house then I have the option of getting a taxi or maybe she/they will choose not to go.

This was when I began to wonder how responsibly run a youth club can be when the person collecting the children see nothng wrong with asking one child to wait alone in the dark at a spot like the top of Chester St.

I then thought about the phone call and thought surely I can't be the only responsible parent who cares enough about her daughter not to want her hanging about on lonely street corners in the dark.

So I posted this thread to ask what other Mums thought.

I wonder what parents of other children in the minibus feel - are their children also collected from similar locations?

It's odd no other parent has queried this - and I get the impression from the guy on the phone that they haven't - hence my asking other Mums on here.

I do not know who the other children are so I cannot ask their parents.

I do find it very strange though that as a caring parent who wouldn't let her child take the risk of being out there alone in the dark I have been criticised and called lazy and uncaring.