DD is 8 and is good friends with a little girl 5 doors down. They don't attend the same school but over this year they've forged a lovely friendship.
This is Australia so 5 doors down is quite a distance compared to how it would be in the UK...all the houses on the street are detached and have very large gardens...we have no problem with DD running up the road to her mate's house to call for her and her friend does the same.
The issue is this. The street backs onto a large golf course...massive with a lot of old trees....the neighbours back garden, like ours...is backed onto the course.
Last night DD was asked to sleepover there and we agreed this was fine.
I spoke to her on the phone at about 8.00pm and she was happy, said goodnnight....she mentioned they were playing in the "den" in friend's back garden which is right by the back gate...the "den' is a broken down play house...wooden but not at all air or insect proof...there's a large hole on one side and it's usually mucky.
Anyway...about 11.00pm DH takes our dog for his evening walk...he goes all around the golf course and returns on a route taking him past the friend's back gate...he is about 50 feet from the house walking along when he hears this sad voice shouting "Mummy!" Mummy!" he realises it's DD!
He calls her name and she shouts "Daddy!" and he goes up to the den to see her...turns out they've been allowed to sleep out in this den...and the friend has gone into a deep sleep from which she can't be woken...DD is scared witless by the sounds of the wildlife...this area is full of wild animals...and she is too scared to go to the house to get her mate's Mother as the garden is so long and she'd been calling out for ages...
Is it a bit off to let two little girls sleep in a den like that...completely acessible from the golf course...very little protection from weather and out of earshot of the main house?
I might be being a bit precious so thought I'd ask. DH phoned the friend's mother whilst he stood there with DD and she laughed...she was in bed, asleep...he told her DD wanted to come home so he thought he'd let her know as the friend was now alone in the den...the mother just said "that's fine" and went!
DD was so relieved to be home!
AIBU?
Was this neglectful? Regarding DD's sleepover
user1477282676 · 20/12/2016 21:32
I'm a but 
at the hand wringing. At 8 I'd expect a child to be able to walk into a house.
Recently my 5 year old slept outside at my parents house and we regular have snakes in
Something similar happened to my DS once. He went to a friend's birthday sleepover when they were about 10. There were about 8 of them in a huge tent in the garden which was large, lots of trees surrounding it, and not secure.
The boys had their bonfire and their late night games and all settled down to sleep and the parents LOCKED THE DOORS TO THE HOUSE because they didn't want to be disturbed with them running in and out all night and told them if they needed the loo to go in the trees.
Halfway through the night some of the more 'lively' boys decided it would be a great idea to all sneak out and walk into the village which is on an estuary with mud flats, big sailing area with easy access to water and an unsupervised boatyard.
The others didn't want to seem like scaredy cats so they all agreed to go, with the exception of one boy who had already fallen asleep and was the type to have been too nervous to go along for the larks anyway.
So the others went wandering around the waterfront and boatyard at 1am and the other child woke up, found himself all alone in the dark and got hysterical. Tried to get into the house (very large old house, very large garden) and the parents either didn't hear the doorbell or just refused to answer it.
Poor child was left alone in an absolutely terrified state but he had a mobile phone on him so rang his mum.
You can imagine how that conversation panned out between all the parents once they'd all heard what had happened.
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Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.
Oh I see you are not a troll. sorry. 
And you are Australian. I don't know how fast you drive in Australia, 
but no, on rural roads 15 miles would take about half an hour.
Oh and your meant to report me to MNHQ if you think I'm hairy handed 
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