Oh, how things have changed since ah wer a lad.
I can’t help but think that lawyers and politicians have been ‘leading the way’.
Perhaps one day we might witness a revival of common sense.
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It’s a changed world. We must accept what it has become.
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If that came from anyone else, I would nod in agreement. But as it’s you I’m all 
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LOL! But I understand. However it is how I see it in this case.
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The whole world has changed and anything that keeps children safer has to be an improvement. In my younger days, my little band of advice shunning girls & boys ignored very sound advice and as such one drowned in deep dark still water after scaling a very high wall designed to keep us out 
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Filthy roller towels in the wash room, grey grotty fractured slivers of soap in the sinks.
Headmasters who would discipline young children by insisting that they bend over and receive a slap or two on the bottom .
As a parent today would you be at ease with any of the above?
The health and safety thing seems to divide opinion, perhaps it shouldn’t!
Yes, I would.
Fortunately, I’m not a parent. However, wen ah wer a lad a tanned backside was par for the course. Perhaps coincidentally, kids of my era were much better behaved that many these days.
If some people are happy with how things are now, good luck to you and the future of your offspring.
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Crocodile fashion, they called it when I was at school.
Did you have to cling on to a rope though and wear a high viz tabard just to walk a few hundred yards in a rural setting?
We used to have to hold hands and walk in twos when we went out. You were supposed to stay with your partner. One teacher at the front of the crocodile, another at the back
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I remember when I was going up to secondary and the same when my sons went, there were lots of scare stories about what the older kids would do to you, head flushed down the toilet etc 
And there was some bullying, hopefully they’ve cracked down on that now.
My youngest’s first day at secondary was eventful. He bopped one of the big kids on the nose! They’d something dirty and pervy to one of his friends, a girl….
So, first day and I’m in the office but luckily the head of year didn’t take it too seriously because my boy was a good two foot shorter than the kid he thumped and he knew there’d been some bullying of the new starters going on
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Happy times indeed!
No chance of being intercepted by an escooter bruv innit!
Too many do Gooders trying to protect our children from roads that are far busier than in our day. Too many do Gooders trying to stop our kids that we never let out to play and learn on their own climb trees and swim in rivers. Too many do Goders trying to protect our kids from the drug cartels that sell drugs outside our schools that we never experienced and, are mostly ignorant of. Yes, do gooders trying to protect our kids from the world we have left for them are bloody annoying. Get a life and look around you. You sound like a bunch of old farts oblivious to the damage we have caused to the times we had and the damage created to childhood.
I can still remember when…
01. Kids had fun without AA batteries;
02. When education involved learning about things that mattered and would serve students well, throughout their lives;
03. When kids saw their friends without making appointments;
04. When games didn’t involve stealing cars, gun calibres, blast radius & murder;
05. When TV was allowed humour without profanity and grossly over-reaching censorship;
06. When toys involved mystery and fascination and not 36 health & safety certificates;
07. When books were made from paper and never used for Kindling;
08. When police were friends and friendly and hated only by criminals;
09. When women were women and men were men and both were glad of it;
10. When kids weren’t baffled about which parent should be called ‘Dad’;
11. When the only provable climate change happened when the Sun went down;
12. When kids who fell over didn’t have to be left bleeding, for our own, life-long reputational protection;
13. When product instructions needed only English and didn’t talk down to us;
14. When a boy’s offered hairstyles weren’t installed on his head two different ones at a time;
…anybody care to add any, here? Gawd, knows, there’s a lot of scope!
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It’s a changed world. Live with it or get out of the way.
Yeah, I remember that too, ‘orrible, wasn’t it?
Like others on here I’m a Teacher and as such, I find myself in total agreement with JBR, Lawyers have led this change.
“Where there’s blame there’s a claim” they said… and boy have the (less sensible) parents jumped on THAT bandwagon. We have become a nation of suers without doubt and as a consequence, teachers and other childcare workers have had to cover their own backs. It’s a sad reflection of some people’s greed and ‘entitled’ attitude I know but it has become absolutely necessary.
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I guess it depends on the school…
My grandchildren attend a Forest School where once a week from the age of 4 they make camp fires, build shelter in the woods and play in a stream with mud.
One very happy muddy grandchild below…
They all love the camp fire, I have blocked out the faces here…
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She looks esctatic, Meg! Mind you, it’ll take more than a bit of Persil to get that lot out 
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I am sure that all of us, as teenagers, made our parents worry about the things we did, but most kids grow up to be more sensible.
Maybe social media & mobile phones have given youngsters a stronger belief that their way is best, but I think what Rhian said has made the situation harder to deal with !
A teacher, who is a friend, told a boy off for running down a school corridor & causing a girl to drop her school bag & its contents. She put her hand on his chest, to stop him walking away whilst she spoke to him, & then let him go , saying " No more running".
Two days later my friend was told to go to the heads office & made to apologise to the boy and his parents, or they would get their lawyer to write to the school about bullying!
They had claimed that she pushed him against the wall and banged his head & his friends would confirm that is what happened. The head was concerned that the school would suffer, so asked my friend to apologise even though she believed my friend was telling the truth!
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