'Vulnerable Children'

An interesting thread, lorigana. I don't recognise your name so welcome to G'net. Look forward to getting to know you.
On this suject, I agree. After the Newtown shooting, I have thought requently about my five-year-old grandson whom Social Services would certainly not categorise as 'vulnerable' but then think about a classroom of children - or teenagers, for that matter - faced with an assault rifle in the hands of someone who has lost his reason, and they and their teachers are all 'vulnerable'.

Some letters on my laptop aren't working properly and need an extra hard tap. Please ignore the typos in my last post and don't send me to Pedants' Corner for judgement.

Welcome lorigana. Well - I guess if you asked a social worker, they would say that a vulnerable child is one being brought up in physical or emotional poverty; or one whose parents do not have the ability to bring them up (e.g. drug addicts); or a child suffering from a disability who might miss out on education and care if the right support were not on offer.

But you are right - if you went to some other countries, their definition might be very different. There are places where children are brought up in what we would regard as extreme poverty, but whose lives are rich emotionally and culturally.

Did you have a particular reason for posing this question?

It is like 'affordable housing', it depends who you are. I heard yesterday that even those living on benefits in this country are better off than a huge proportion of the rest of the world which made me think and kind of puts things in perspective.

We are all vulnerable at some times in our lives.