Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Does the signpost from the A24 still say Christ's Hospital Amenity Tip, as if they were both the same place?!

Fjgrogan wrote:Does the signpost from the A24 still say Christ's Hospital Amenity Tip, as if they were both the same place?!

It certainly did when I went 'over' that round-about quite recently !

Found this on the BBC website today (I have commented)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/help/7465538.stm

The link goes to the "Thank you for your comment" confirmation What's the link to the original page with your comment on?

oops, sorry about that

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/8413658.stm

God, that's scary

I thought I'd already commented on this thread, but can't see it so it must have been somewhere else, that my other half says they occasionally have parents coming along to Freshers' Week welcomes where he works. The VP has to tactfully discourage them and make it clear that it's not expected behaviour.

Mind, I was quite surprised a few years ago when a colleague commented that she must get round to sending away for university prospectuses for her daughter. When I expressed surprise and asked why the daughter didn't do it herself, she said she was only trying to take an interest and give some help. A few days later she told me she'd asked her daughter's friends' parents and they all did the same. It was quite refreshing to speak to a fellow HOB last week and discover that she let hers get on with it themselves.

What happened to letting kids grow up and take responsibility and initiative for their own lives?

<stands back and waits for reactions, knowing how parents hate criticism from the childless >

Since my "Babies" are 57 and 52 years old ----- I consider myself "Childless" ------
(5 Pensions, between us -- and no kids at school )

WHOOPEE !!

Part of the problem these days is that pupils are not allowed to fail. Schools are under so much pressure to get the C grades and above that students are spoon fed and coddled and every thing possible is done for them to make sure they achieve. This leads to chidlren who aren't used to taking control and making decisions themselves or taking responsibility for their own learning and life. I'm speaking from a state secondary point of view - CH I think clearly does encourage independence in learning and in life but elsewhere this isn't necessarily the case.

That's interesting YadaYada, thanks. Worrying....... but interesting.

I agree with yadayada but I also think that times have clearly changed in terms of how safe parents think the world is.When I was a child I played in the street with anyone who came along without a care in the world and maybe that made me more street wise. When I went to CH I was horrified and depressed by the lack of freedom and the type of supervision we were expected to tolerate.Recently, however, in the park at the end of my road a man was murdered but no one cared as he had previously held up the post office including threatening a blind woman with a knife.I couldn't let my children play out as I used to. I suspect this has a knock on effect. Children are generally more supervised and parents continue in this vein long after the children are grown-largely out of habit, maybe.

We have lots of snowmen in our street, the older ones made their own, and can often be found skateboarding and playing footie in the summer, and parents helped the little ones.

I did spend one night on the floor of my daughter's room, the night before she came home for the summer, she went out and left me to it. Apart from that I am just the taxi driver and general dogsbody.

englishangel wrote:We have lots of snowmen in our street, the older ones made their own, and can often be found skateboarding and playing footie in the summer, and parents helped the little ones.

This conjures up a wonderful mental image of snowmen skateboarding, playing footie, and helping the smaller snowmen.

Hmmm, perhaps I could have expressed it more grammatically, but it would not have been so picturesque. Incidentally it is now raining and we have just had a thunderstorm.

Jo wrote: What happened to letting kids grow up and take responsibility and initiative for their own lives?

<stands back and waits for reactions, knowing how parents hate criticism from the childless >

I blame mobile phones.

I lived in a council flat on an Estate in Streatham from the age of 5 to about 16. Many kids of various ages. The 10/11 year olds would walk to school together, taking the younger ones with them. During the holidays we would play together, sometimes walking up to Brockwell Park to spend the day at the lido. In Winter we would swim at indoor pools. If we lost our bus fare, or spent it on Bovril (ewwwwwwwwwggggggggggghhhhhhhh) we walked home. No point in ringing home for a lift. We had neither a car nor a phone. We learnt to make decisions and abide by the consequences.

I doubt that there are any more murderers or paedophiles living now than there were back then, and have a theory that we are more aware of them courtesy of the gutter press and commercial TV channels who, for whatever reason, like to suck us into fear by sensationalising everything they can.

Anyway, back to mobile phones. It is, IMO, just too easy to dial a friend/parent, thus people choose not to rationalise situations and deal with them, and rapidly lose the ability to make decisions, which extends from how to change a flat tyre on a cold dark night to getting off their btms and researching Uni options.

Hmmmmmmm, think I may have eaten too much for lunch, leaving my brain a wee bit short of blood flow.

I am grateful for my Nan (and Miss Mercer, or was it Morrison?) who would regularly exclaim that 'there's no such word as can't' and encourage me to pull my wits together and get on with whatever I needed to deal with.

Merry Christmas everyone.

xx

Dealing with whatever?

Did you ever come across the flasher under the railway bridge on Tooting Bec Common, Caroline? I can't say I felt very alarmed. Such a poor little man - such a small and dismal, er, member. It would have been such a shame to arrest him. He was a regular fixture on the Common where we played. We'd disappear for unsupervised hours.

I must also admit to loving the Great Smog of... was it 1962? We groped our way to and from school in near-invisibility. "Oh look, I think I recognise this lamp post!" I'm ashamed to say that I was not sensitive to those who suffered with respiritory difficulties, for

it was fun!