Would you let your child do this or am I over the top?

@Overthebs - How can you "categorically rule out child abduction"???

Are you saying you're happy letting a child out of your sight if you're at home (presumably in the UK)?

Have you not heard of Sarah Payne? Or April Jones? Who were both kidnapped right near their homes?!

This. I noticed the signs everywhere on a recent trip to America involving several cities. Perhaps it is a legal requirement? I don’t know.

I agree that the signs are aimed at immigrants, mostly irregular ones (that’s why they are in so many languages) and homeless people

@KrustyBurger you had a really bad feeling about it, you didn't let her do it, its done now. No harm, unless you often get really bad feelings and these affect your children's lives. As a one off, I'd just go with my feeling, not because it is likely to be right, but just so I enjoy life more!

But it's a hotel corridor - they're covered in cameras and well-lit no matter what time of day it is.

What is it about 10pm that makes it so much more dangerous than 10am?

This!
First of all you've got the chance that a murderer/rapist/someone with bad intentions would randomly be in the same hotel as you....low
Then that they would be constantly standing by their door peering out the keyhole for 12 hours on the off-chance someone passes by....unlikely to the point of absurdity
Then that even if all that happened they would be willing to risk endangering themselves....attacking someone in a hotel would be incredibly high risk, you've got cctv everywhere, close quarters and thin walls for any noises to be overheard, parents would soon realise kid has gone missing and the rooms along their intended route would be the first to be searched, if they didn't kill their victim they'd be identifiable by their room booking, if they did kill them how on earth would they get rid of the body....if someone was so desperate to attack a child there are a million easier ways of doing it...

Really ott!

So what if someone is coming out of the lift drunk?!?! Can 12 year olds not witness people being drunk?! Are they particularly dangerous?! What's a drunk person going to do apart from maybe stagger a bit down the corridor?!

"Lazy husband"?!?! I asked DSD to bring her bin down this morning from her bedroom and wash her plates - are me and DP "lazy" for not doing it for her???

Why risk anything ever?

Why not? And why wouldn’t you do it?

Jesus - another one 🙄

@Overthebs On the (practically non existent) chance that there is a child abductor staying in those 10-12 rooms between their room and the bin, then it would be a bit easier for someone to abduct a 3 year old than a 12 year old, wouldn't it?

I wouldn't make a 3 year old walk to school on their own either. Or go to the shops.

I worry about the kids of some of these posters.

I'm with you Op I agree there's being relaxed and letting them do things on their own and then there's sadly too many wrong ones in this world to even be able to take your eye off them I would rather be that mum that has my eyes constantly on my children than the one wailing why why when you didn't so do what you feel is right for your own family not what a bunch of strangers on the net say they would do.

People seem to think that to be grabbed they would have to be waiting by the keyhole watching. Someone could just be returning to their room, unlocking their door and spot an opportunity to pull her in. Ted Bundy and the like were often very opportunistic.

This is obviously still a VERY unlikely scenario still but perhaps more likely than someone lurking by their keyhole.

Not allowing a 12 year old to walk down a hotel corridor by themselves is absolutely absurd.

That kid is going to turn 18 and have absolutely no initiative or independence whatsoever.

I can honestly say I don’t think that would have occurred to me.

Also, human trafficking in the context here is very unlikely to be children grabbed in the US. The issue is young people being brought in from other countries and then used basically as slaves in the US. Or indigent/vulnerable people being taken off the street and "sold on". Human traffickers do not, as a rule, prioritise wealthy 12 year old girls staying in Marriot hotels with both of their parents.....

When I was 12 we went on holiday to Florida and I remember going down to the hotel lobby on my own to hire DVDs from a machine and I think my brother and I were allowed to go to the hotel pool on our own. So yes, YABU

And so someone grabs her into their room? Then what? The OP mentioned a poster about human trafficking - do you think in the 5 seconds of being grabbed into a room that a potential "baddie" is going to be able to get her out of the room, down the corridor, out of the hotel and into a waiting car - without anyone noticing 😂All whilst OP and her DH are just sat in their hotel waiting for her to come back not noticing the commotion outside?!

Bearing in mind the DD is 12, not 2.

I think some people spend FAR too much time watching Netflix documentaries.

This is exactly what I was going to say.

A PP said
I wouldn’t ask my son/daughter to do that, not for your reasons though, it’s just not a chore I’d ask them to do.

Why on earth not? Surely taking the rubbish out is one of those easy and necessary tasks any 12 year old, or younger, can be asked to do from time to time. So what if it is the DH who wants the bin empty. It sounds like he was busy doing something else so perfectly reasonable to ask a 12 year old to help out with a simple chore.

Anyway, another person here thinking this is way OTT.

I’d let them do it because they need to learn independence etc more than be protected from something that there is about a one in billion chance of happening! Good Lord!

I personally don't think you're being that OTT. But then I have a 5 year old so not sure how different I'll feel when she is 12.

I think it's natural to feel extra cautious when on holiday. I can imagine in your situation I would have let her do it if she wanted to but I probably would have watched from the door.

YABU OP. This is a totally normal thing for a 12 year old in a hotel to do. At this age I'd expect them to be going down to find vending machines or to get a drink from the restaurant alone too.

It's like when I see parents letting their children go into public toilets on their own, my stomach always does a flip. Why risk it.

Can you expand on this please @CaravaggiosCat . I mean, there's a big difference between sending a 5 year old boy into the men's toilets at Victoria station alone vs a 12 year old girl going into the woman's toilets at a Pizza Express alone. A blanket, "I think it's dangerous for children to use public toilets alone" is crazy.

"We are in a foreign country"

What's that got to do with anything?! Do you not read the UK news?! Like she's safe on the streets in the UK but not in a hotel in the USA 😂

Honestly people are so, so weird. And your DD will grow up with massive anxiety issues if she's not allowed to walk down a corridor AGE 12.

I'm with you OP. The only way I would've is if I was discreetly peeping round the door watching so she felt she was doing something independently.
It's like when I see parents letting their children go into public toilets on their own, my stomach always does a flip. Why risk it.

As the OP says, Marriott is a nice hotel chain.

Even my very protective parents were letting me walk to the ice and vending machines in the Marriotts and nicer Hiltons age 11-12 when we travelled across America.

OP, I too am curious in which countries if any you would deem it safe for DD age 12 to empty the bins as you have described?

I think this is a good point. I'm always shocked by all the women on MN (and now and again in RL) who are so scared of things but perhaps they had paranoid parents and that fear was instilled then. I think I keep thinking that this is a really new phenomenon and that the current generation of children are the first to suffer as a result. But perhaps not.

By the time they’re 12 you’re meant to be over the PFB stage OP 😁 but I get how you feel, I’d probably think twice about it but in the end it’s just down the corridor and back.