Carrie Bickmore confesses to parenting ‘fail’ on The Project — but did she do anything wrong?

ON THE Project last night, Carrie Bickmore confessed she’d been guilt tripped over her parenting. But did she actually do anything wrong?

DURING a frank discussion on parenting on The Project last night, Carrie Bickmore confessed to a recent embarrassing failure.

But her behaviour would have been considered absolutely normal 20 years ago, her fellow panellists pointed out.

She told the story after a conversation on overweight children turned to how some parents now drive children to the end of the driveway to catch a bus and refuse to let them go to the park or out on their bikes all day alone.

“Last week for the first time, I let Ollie walk to school on his own,” said Carrie, of her nine-year-old son. “This is how much of a helicopter parent I am not. At lunchtime, I was with a friend and she said, ‘And he got there OK?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, well, I don’t know, I think!’

The mother of two said she emailed the teacher after her friend asked if she knew her nine-year-old son had made it in on his own.

“And she said, ‘Have you not checked with the school?’ And I was like, ‘Is that what you're meant to do?’”

The 36-year-old said she emailed the school to ask if her son arrived safely and received the reply: “It’s lunchtime, it’s a bit late now if he didn’t!”

The audience laughed, but Waleed Aly broke in to say: “Isn’t what you did actually normal?”

Bickmore: “Well that’s what would have happened when I was growing up, I had to walk three ks and I don’t think anyone called to school to check that I had got there.”

Waleed agreed. “Exactly, if my parents sent me to school they would just assume, if they didn’t hear from me, I was still alive, everything’s fine, move on.”

The discussion raised an interesting point about how children used to be permitted far more independence in going out alone. Many blamed the internet for limiting how much exercise kids do — and of course, the online world is also dangerous, in its own way.

Waleed Aly said in his day, parents would assume their children were fine.

“Physical activity is inversely proportional to online activity,” tweeted Roddlez.

But some mocked the “in my day” grumblers for acting like out-of-touch old people. “Wow you guys are sounding old now,” tweeted ozboxfan. “You’ve become your parents.”

Twitter user #ComedyIsMedicine joked: “Back in Canada, I had to walk through the snow, in minus 40, uphill — BOTH WAYS!”

Viewer Shane Matthew Neave tweeted: “As a teen I would ride my 10 speed bike to the nearest town, 16 kilometres away, just for something to do!”

So how old do children need to be to go out alone? Can we keep them safe from predators, or do we need to give them more autonomy?

Are you scared to let your child walk to school alone? Email [e-mail] or tweet @newscomauHQ or @emmareyn.