I am trying to be chilled about this. Am I right?

[Nicotina]

This has only come to light now. Not sinister but could have been. Dd (was 12) went on a camping weekend with school pal (girl also 12), brother of friend (year younger) and their parents. For one night, the Mum was called away for an emergency todo with her own Mum. Dad left in charge of 3 kids. Sensible bloke. Or so I thought. Turns out, while he slept - separate area of big tent - the three sneaked out for what actually sounded like an Enid Blyton adventure- exploring some nearby woods to look for badgers. No one found out at the time ; they all got back safely. My dd fessed up when we were discussing camping. I told her she could easily have asked the Dad to supervise some nocturnal animal search. I also explained how much difficulty she could have got into. She said she had her phone but I doubt the signal was any good - rural area. I haven't told the parents of the other two yet. Should I tell them? I doubt this would have happened if the Mum had been there. Her emergency turned out to be not so serious- Mum's Mum had leaky pipes and got panicky. And should I let her go away with them again?

Why would you want to knock any sense of adventure out of your dd?

I feel so sad for children these days, unless they're in front of an iPad, they're not safe.

When I was younger, my sister & I would take a packed lunch and go out on our bikes for hours! And I won't tell you the crazy things my friend & I did on her ponies in case you have a heart attack! My mum would just let us go and have fun, I'm only 40 so it wasn't even in 'the good old days'!

Well done OP, well taken!

I'm glad they did it! I would have done just this at their age, but sadly there is less opportunity for adventure these days.
I'd let it drop now, no point bringing it up with the other parents.

Catchit, I'm in my 50s so, taking Mum hat off, it sounded like something from my childhood too. Mum hat back on and I felt a bit twitchy.

We always made an effort to go out and do muddy stuff with dd when she was younger- turns out she was paying attention when I said "Oo, look, I wonder what lives in that hole in the ground " when she was little.

I think you should turn this on its head and be proud of them. I hope my kids grow up with a similar sense of adventure. They are the ones who will go far in life. Toeing the line never made anyone great.

Meh. Did you ask if any of them had been sensible enough to take their phones (and a torch) in case they got into any sort of trouble?

If she'd said no I think I'd have said "until one of you is sensible enough to take the necessary precautions when going out in the middle of the night without telling an adult, I don't think you should be going on any more adventures!" and left it as ambiguous as that. If she'd said yes, I'd probably leave it and say "well, at least that's something. Did you see any badgers?".

But that's easy to say when my dc is still much younger than this.

It sounds an exciting adventure at this age. And going with an adult is not the same at all. I would emphasise more that they need to all stay together, and not do this alone.
I think the risks of what they did are very very small. Main risk is probably slipping over and getting muddy

Epoxy- phone and torches were in play although the signal would be weak or non existent. There was apparently a debate about whether torches would disturb the badgers! As if they wouldn't disturb them otherwise.

I must admit that now I have the Horrible Histories "Call the Police! There's a badger at me Nana's" going through my head.

It's kind of heartening that children are still doing things like this. Instead of sneaking off with 10 fags and a bottle of cider...

I do get it Nicotina if my dd did some of the stuff I did in my childhood days I'd probably feel faint, but then I think my pride in her adventurous streak would win the day.

Mind you, I never told my mum I fell off said pony, lost it in the woods and promptly lost my friends pony too as she went to look for mine. We lost them for about 1/2 hr before getting back on and continuing our ride!

I have the Yes Minister episode with the 'bodgers' and the threatened naked protest by Hacker's daughter...

Yetanother!

Great story CatchIt!

This all reminds me of the film Stand by Me. At least it was badgers, and not a dead body, op.

At 12, I really wouldn't bat an eyelid at this sort of adventure. It builds resilience and helps with those first steps towards independence.

Werkz, thanks for the reminder. Never seen that film and always wanted to get round to it.

Another one finding this mildly heartening. Just because I failed with my own dc doesn't mean there aren't still some youngsters out there with the proper spirit.