I feel so mean right now

[joanna4]

My son who is almost 13 has come in and asked if he can camp out tonight in a neighbours garden.There will be 4 of them all boys of similar age.I have said no for a few reasons-
i have done the camping out thing at that age I know it involves a walk round the town in the small hours.My son is frightened of the dark if they go and he doesnt he wouldnt stay on his own.

You dont know who is about after dark.

I do not trust one of the boys in particular his mum has said he can camp-out of sight out of mind.

My hubby is applying for a job in the police force if my son is picked up doing anything untoward it may reflect badly.

I feel so mean right now and there has been no mention of who will be supervising them.
Can anyone say anything that will make me feel better or that i can say to him that i already havent.

[custy]

have them in your garden then

[Greenleeves]

I'd say no to him at that age too. And I wouldn't feel mean. He's too young IMO.

[singingmum]

Could you organize a supervised camp out so that he doesn't feel he will miss out?you could make it better than the one he was going to so that he feels really good about it.
I wouldn't allow my Ds12 to an unsupervised camp out either

[joanna4]

My garden is in no fit state otherwise I might have considered it but i would have stayed up all night.

[joanna4]

Singingmum my sister goes camping a lot with my nephew i might ask her if we can tag on next holidays hadnt thought of that.

[pointydog]

don't you know or trust the mum whose garden they will be camping in?

[custy]

what i have done in past - and my garden really isnt suitable - but i have done small campfire, tent baked potatoes in the fire

late night torches leave them outside until midnight - tell them to get to bed.

[joanna4]

I dont know her that well now he is saying the little brother who is 6 will be allowed out to camp too which i am a bit suprised at.Grandma does a lot of the looking after so I havent seen her more than twice.

[fluffyanimal]

How do you know they will go walk about? Can you not talk to the parent at whose house they will be camping and make sure they are supervised?

[joanna4]

Like i say I have been young myself he is cool about the going with his cousin thing turns out he just wants to go camping not particularly in their garden just camping.

[pointydog]

mm, yeah, I think best option would be to let him have a mate or two over camping in yourt garden. What do you mean no fit state?

We got a cheap argos tent and dd1 slept out with two friends last summer. You can get a camping light re dark.

[joanna4]

No fit state as in think of these garden renovation shows we are the before stage lol!
Full of nettles stones and presents from the dog next door-but that is a story for another day.

[ScummyMummy]

Can you ring the owner of the boy whose garden it is and ask about supervision? I can't see how they could get into too much mischief camping in a garden if someone responsible was keeping half an eye or so.

[fluffyanimal]

If he's just keen to go camping and your garden isn't suitable, has he got a friend who does have a garden? You could offer to stay over to help keep an eye on them, so that their parents don't think you are taking advantage. If you aren't keen on the OP camping trip, sounds like it would be a good idea to mitigate your refusal with some other camping thing.

Anyway, I bet once he realises how cold it still gets at night at the moment, he won't want to do it again for a while!!

[joanna4]

Well it seems I started something soon as I said no another mum said no then the boy who had the tent big enough suddenly couldnt come either.