A mum has told how her “cheeky” neighbour entrusts her with taking their child to school every day – but without ever having met the parent. Taking to social media, the confused mother explained that a “very young” and unaccompanied child was arriving on their doorstep every morning. While she added that the child appeared to come from the neighbourhood and attended the same school as their daughter, she has never met their parents.
In a post on parenting forum Mumsnet last week, the user said the neighbourhood child was in her daughter’s class and had appeared at their doorstep “every day this past week”.
The unaccompanied youngster is in her daughter’s class, she added, and she has so far taken them on the school run.
But, to make matters worse, the mum said she didn’t have any contact details for their parents, as she confessed she didn’t “know exactly where they live”.
The mum asked whether it was unreasonable for her to think the child’s parents were being “cheeky”.
She wrote: “This child is very young, and so I don’t feel comfortable sending them home alone, and clearly the parent isn’t waiting for them to get home before leaving themselves!
“I don’t have any contact with these parents, so if something were to happen, I wouldn’t be able to let them know. We are also going away soon and won’t be able to take him to school!
“Am I being unreasonable to think this is really cheeky of the parents and that you shouldn’t just assume another parent will take yours to school with no prior conversation at all!”
The post garnered significant attention, with hundreds of concerned forum users commenting below.
Most of the commenters urged the mum to raise the child’s daily visits with the school.
One wrote: “B****y hell OP! I think you should tell the school what’s going on, they might have a form for this, or they might be on their radar for another reason.”
Another added: “Please talk to the school safeguarding lead. This is a red flag and the poor child must be confused with what’s going on.”
Other parents suggested the mum go further and inform social services the child was being left unattended.
