To think that 12 year olds and under are too young to go camping alone?

[BitOfFun]

My friend has three kids close in age, the eldest being 12- two boys and a girl. I suppose the girl is quite mature really, despite being the youngest, as she is already used to cooking for the entire family.

Anyway, my friend packed them off to their aunt and uncle for a fortnight last summer, only to discover that there had been practically zero adult supervision, and that the children had actually been allowed to go camping all on their own

Apparently this was alright because the ten year old cousin they went with is handy with a pocket-knife and can climb like a monkey ...oh, and they took the family dog with them, who is very protective.

AIBU to be horrified? God only knows what sort of scrapes they could have got into. Friend genuinely doesn't seem bothered, btw, and reckons she'll probably let them spend part of the Easter hols with this family again

Flip, yanbu!

was the dog called Timmy?

Depends - if they have enough money for lashings of ginger beer they should be fine. And the gypsies and foreigners may give them a bit of trouble but it should all come out right in the end.

Please don't out Quentin. He does very important work for the MoD, I think.

YABU - mine went to stay at windemere last summer and spent the whole hols messing about in a boat. they had jolly good larks camping on an island too. marvelous.

Uncle Quentin was a lovely gay fellow.

(OK I have got this joke that is doing the rounds now - I don't feel as if I am going mad or that you lot have been drinking!)

It would be fine if they had lashings of ginger beer and lived in times where there weren't axe murderers on every corner.

Seriously, though, I would let 12yr olds go camping if they had phones to check in with, but not younger which your OP suggests.

Your turn to do one then, Punk!

I get the feeling that they see Aunt Fanny more often than they see their own mum.

Oh no - I don't do Blyton. I was reading Tolstoy at 12 and so complaining about a friend who threw herself under a train (Anna Karenina) might take us into entirely different territory.

Now about my son who has been locked in a cupboard with his white owl........

hail hail the SS and FF

but at op