Dear LPG, 

 I recently read an article on your pages where a reader suggested that there is a lot to be seen when travelling on a bus. 

I still get out and make use of my freedom pass and I often find myself travelling on the bus in the afternoons during what is often referred to as the first rush hour of each weekday.  I am talking about that time when the school children are leaving for the day.  I spent some time helping at school when my children were young, and I always thought that the children were much better behaved on the way to school than when they were returning.  

My theory is that when children leave home in the mornings they are less likely to be with the friends that they think will be impressed if they shout a bit louder than the rest of the kids or say things that are a bit more shocking.  

I remember my own school days being much the same although I was a ‘try not to rock the boat’ type of school child and the worst thing I ever did was get discovered eating food on the way home from school because all my friends were doing the same.  But those were the days when if your mum’s neighbour saw you doing something like that she would feel quite justified in giving you a clip round the ear and she would then tell your mum or dad during the next conversation they had over the garden fence and you would get a clip off your parents as well.  

These days the government has decreed that nearly every sort of chastisement is wrong so, while there are a lot of well-behaved ones, children do what they like.   Many of them get to the age of 18 and leave school understanding not a lot about following rules and then suddenly find themselves having to fall into line. 

I think that it has a lot to do with the fact that parents are now encouraged to make their children’s’ childhoods into one where they experience the happiest aspects of life and where the consequences of the things that they do wrong are so often not shown to them.  

I think that the quality of their lives is still very important but, after 18 or so years of a prolonged childhood holiday, too many of today’s children are so often so ill prepared for adulthood. 

ES, Rushey Green