Should children be left on their own at home?

AS A child, if l wasn’t well enough to go to the day nursery l had to be left at home alone. My mother was a war widow and had no choice. As a result, in the bitter winter of 1947 when l was just three years old, l was left at home with whooping cough. l can still remember my terror at the paroxysms of coughing — but each day l was told to sit in the armchair and not move. The fireguard was in place and mother went off at 8am and returned at 6pm. No work would have meant no money. At some point, when l felt on the mend, l picked up a box of Swan Vesta matches and set the box alight, burning my fingers badly enough to need hospital treatment. Mother was angry, but the doctor was cross because l was still whooping. Did l ever leave my children alone? Not on your life. Mrs MARGARET BOUTELL,

St Leonards, E. Sussex. I realIse how much children’s freedom and independence have changed over the years. I’m not so naive as to think we can wind back the clock, but at 80, I still relish the freedom we took for granted. In the middle of World War II, when I was six, we lived in Pinner, Middlesex. after breakfast I would walk, unaccompanied, to catch the bus to school. We all had front doorkeys, so if Mum was not home on my return, I’d let myself in and wait for her. Then it would be out to play. By the time I was eight, my parents had temporarily moved to Central london. I was initially left with friends and subsequently sent to a small boarding school in Harrow. so it was quite usual for me at the age of eight or nine to travel alone by Tube to spend a weekend with my parents near Tottenham Court road. after the war, the freedom continued: sandwiches and squash in a bicycle saddle bags and I would only go home when I was hungry or it was dark. It is a shame that children nowadays cannot experience the freedom we enjoyed.

TONY CLARK, Great Glen, Leics.