DS has quit his job to go travelling with a girl he just met

This is MN. Moreover, it's aibu.sense and sensibilities rarely come to the fore here.
Some of us have noted that your son is a grown man who is unlikely to be a drug mule.
Ignore the hysterical 'put mouth on overdrive before engaging brain' responders!

I'd be delighted if my son decided to go traveling after uni or shortly after. I did it and it's an opportunity that opens your mind for life. I'm a great believer that men who have traveled are less likely to make stupid decisions during mid life crisis 🙂

Reminds me of the time my DH elderly relative flew with him to Singapore. When asked the question was he carrying anything for anyone else, he answered yes! Because he has Christmas gifts for family from him in his bags. They took a little longer through customs than usual that trip!

He's not going to say "went travelling with someone I didn't really know" on his CV!

Seeing as he is a graduate and already had a job, it seems like a great time to go traveling. He'll likely be able to get another job when he returns. But, in the meantime, his confidence will bloom and he'll have an amazing time. I don't think it matters about the girl too much. Once traveling he will meet loads of new friendly people and if they part ways he might find the confidence to keep traveling by himself.

Fantastic news! Absolutely support him.

Adventure grows a person!

Absolutely support him with this and wave him off with a smile; sounds like she’s helped him regain his confidence so this could be the making of him. Far better life experience for him than another year at work, he’s got another 40 years of that to come!!

That’s what I was thinking. Makes me nostalgic for the time when I was still young and free enough to go backpacking!

As per PP, totally understand your concern as a mum, but also sounds amazing opportunity for your son. Even if it goes wrong either the girl, he will probably still carry on as there are so many others including solo travellers doing these trips.

OMG!
It will be the making of him, regardless whether the relationship endures.
Good on him!

Seems like the new lady brings out the best of him. Great news I think, just let them be, you’re young and in love once. Time to make memories and see the world.

He can always get another job, girlfriends don’t come so easily

there are more jobs out there, let him enjoy life. he can be ground down later when he is our age!

Do you really need to ask why?

I really can't agree with you here.

I am also in the Southern Hemisphere, but not Australia like the OP.

But, it is very much a common thing in our part of the world for young adults to up sticks and go and travel.

Bear in mind that we do not have access to a short flights to other countries like you do in the northern hemisphere. We cannot easily jump on a train or a ferry to another country for a week. Which also means that most travel done (a lot is to Europe), is usually a big trip and then it is usually extended to include other countries as well. As once they get back to their own country, they are back to stay most of the time.

So it is really not unusual for a young adult to have a gap in a cv and travel is put into those slots. And a lot of the time, this goes in the candidates favour. Not because they took a year of superficial vagrancy, but it would be looked at as gaining life experience elsewhere.

Yes, they haven't known each other long. But maybe they did just click and the girl has been wanting to travel, but didn't want to go alone. Which also makes sense.

If it doesn't work out, so be it.

He will always have the experience of travel. That cannot be taught in school or university.

At 24 I randomly moved to Spain for a year with a guy I had only known dor 2 months

were now 30 years married (and yes we got jobs again despite “gaps” in our cvs

good luck to your son, great he is living his life

there is a huge shortage of engineers and he will still be employable!

It sounds amazing, that's the age for going fuck it and off you go round the world!

On the part about the girl clearly being a drug runner, it's perfectly normal for couples to share luggage.....

People saying he could just get another job, maybe it is different in Australia but many graduates in this country aren’t just walking into jobs. If he was on a graduate programme it might be foolish to just drop it.

I wonder if the sexes were reversed and it was a girl who had suddenly jacked her job in to go travelling for a year with a young lad she had only just met, people would be so enthusiastic

I assume they earn money as they travel or how else is he affording it?

One the one hand this seems like an amazing thing for him to do. I’d be supporting it. I wish I had gone travelling. We need those formative relationships to help us work out what we want in relationships and heartbreak is a fact of life we need to learn to cope with. So I would support him fully. He will find another job and this experience- the highs and lows, will shape him as a person.

On the other hand I share the concerns above that he’s been groomed as a potential drug mule. This is the exact pattern of behaviour. The chances are slim that this is happening and if it is he is unlikely to get caught but if it did the outcome is catastrophic and potentially life ruining.

So, I would be fully supporting because it’s the things in life we don’t do that we regret. I would ask him about his plans. Be excited with him. Let him know you are there if he needs anything. Then let him know you have one little worry and then ask him if he’s heard of drug muling. If he hasn’t then educate him. Tell him you trust his judgment of course but that you’d not be doing your job if you didn’t give him a heads up that this can happen and how to minimise the chance.

Oh how lovely. I'd be so excited for my kids if they did this. But I'd also make sure they had an international SIM and my credit card for emergencies :)

And I know you've heard this plenty but under no circumstances should he carry any of her stuff through the airport. Appreciate it might sound insane but tragedies have happened this way and it's just good sense. They always ask if you're carrying items that don't belong to you for good reason - he would have to lie and then it's on him if anything is wrong.

He sounds like a young 24 so maybe just a chat of things that might come up and how he could handle them?

I wouldn't worry at all about the job at all unless it's a training programme or something he's giving up on - and even then it isn't that big a deal. He is so young and has decades to build a career.

How amazing. My biggest regret is not doing something like this before settling down and having kids. Life is for living, if it all goes wrong he is young enough to get a new job and start again

You're not unreasonable to worry, youre a parent. However, why is this a mistake? Is the worry that he might never work again and once he comes back he will be unemployed for rest of his life? She's using him? They might break up after 2 weeks, but does that really matter? Most relationships end, well most marriages end. So a bit of fun before that happens sounds good!

Surely you know

No I'm sure he didn't mean that. I would very much doubt he's setting off with that intention.

The point is that he needs to be aware of it as a risk (not just this girl-anyone they might meet).

I would show enthusiasm and ask about plans, and also (privately) ask what the main risks are and what he plans to do about them. Someone else probably has better wording

Honestly, let him chill and go - your son is sorted - he graduated, he had a job. Gap yaaahs are usually a menace and sabotage for those who have not started university yet, as they are designed to relax a person to such an extent that upon return they won't be able to pass their LSAT or do a good interview, because their minds have been numbed and there is no focus there anymore. It also teaching nothing about cultures or countries they visit - it is a form of very superficial vagrancy with no depth at all (unlike going to a specific country and living their for up to a year to learn about that country and the language, to be part of that society via work of volunteering). But your son has graduated, he even had a job - maybe he just needs a bit of light-hearted relaxation and if his degree was serious or his job was demanding, maybe he needs a bit of mind-numbing that a gap yaaah usually provides?

Although it sounds like a great opportunity for him personally, I’m genuinely surprised that more people haven’t had this thought, and instead think that up and leaving is totally fine. He’s 24, not 21 and I think it is worth considering what he’s giving up. Eg a training contract with a law firm? Unlikely to get another one etc. I think there are also challenges being with someone 24/7 you have only just met - I’d be concerned for him if this is his first relationship since his teens - he may himself in Central America, desperate to go home but feels responsible for this girl. It could be a wonderful experience - but YANBU to have concerns, and it still needs thinking through carefully.