letting 11 year old go into town

[6demandingchildren]

I have a reason for asking this so please bear with me.

say your 11 year old is in a foreign country and knew a little bit of the local language would you let them go off into the local town for 3 or 4 hours with 2 or 3 friends?

Depends entirely on which foreign country!!

Are the friends other British holiday makers? Or are they local? Are you in a 'safe' country. My answer would be very different to eg Canada or Morocco, male or female child.

Also how far away is the town, how are they getting there, what are they going to do, how well do they know the town, and have that a phone?

Nope

No, I wouldn't

I am a very relaxed parent, my kids have been playing out and down the park from a very young age but I wouldn't let my 11 year old DD into town in a foreign country.

I suppose there's reasons for that in my head though which will depend upon which country you're in, if your child is male or female, how old/sensible are the other kids, how far away town is and also whether your child has a phone.

No

No, definitely not. It's foreign to them and you don't know the place well enough. Could get lost. Meet someone not so nice.etc.
I wouldn't allow an 11year old to wander around our local town at home with friends either, especially not for 3-4 hours.

All depends. In principal fine - I’d let them go out in the town near me, but how well do they know this foreign town? The town in Spain we visit I’d be fine as my kids know it well and there’s lots of English speaking tourists and the shopkeepers are friendly. But don’t know about anywhere else.

Foreign country = no way

Not a chance

I am helping my husband out today and i'm in our shop, 3 foreign exchange students came in, and their English is not very good at all, they told us they had all just turned 11 and they have 4 hours before they can go "home" as their host family's only have them from 9pm until 8pm and during the day they have lessons then 4-5 hours free time then an activity in the evening. i'm just finding it hard knowing that these children have parents who let them do this at such a young age, I think i'm being a bit precious as my youngest is 11 but has special needs but I dont think I would even let my other children do this at such a young age, its not the fact they are away from home its that they are left unsupervised for 4-5 hours each day in a foreign land.

Hmm. my DC went away on a Spanish trip earlier this year, and they had free time in groups in town. They were minimum of 3 in a group, with check in times with the teachers, and mobile phones etc. Youngest on the trip was 13 years old, so not much older. It didn't really occur to me to be too worried tbh.

I've organised trips and allowed 11 year olds in groups to have free time in a smallish area - we sat in a central point.

No, 11 is too young for me.

If it is a group trip so there is a whole class in the town in small groups, and the teachers are in the same general area too, then it seems fairly normal practice to have this unsupervised free time in a town centre. Probably more like two hours than four, and more like 13 than 11, but it isn't totally weird.
The strange bit is the being thrown out of the accommodation/school with no supervision and having to hang around without a scheduled activity (even if that is "explore the town centre") for that time.

No