Would you allow this?

[maccaroni]

My child is in year 11 and aged 16. They have asked if they can go on holiday abroad with 4 friends (2 male, 2 female) and stay in one of the friends parents apartment. There will be no over 18 present on the trip.
I was interested to know what parents with kids this age think? Would you allow your teen to go? This will be after exams are finished.

Absolutely not.
They are just too young at 16.
Also can they even get flights age 16 with no adult present?

Ar first I was leaning towards no, but changed to yes.

It'll be a good experience. She'll be with friends. She has a phone.

It was quite common in the 1980s but I wouldn’t let my children go now.

Aside from the possible issue of travel insurance, I wouldn't have stopped my daughter from going abroad with friends at that age. She went to Poland with another friend when she was 17, and was fine. I went off on a coach to camp in Spain with my boyfriend when I was 16, just after I took my O Levels. My parents obvoiusly wanted to know lots of details and wanted reassurances from my boyfriend, but they agreed to it, and we had a great time. I was a very mature and responsible 16 year old, as was my daughter, and I think by that age, most young people would be fine going overseas for a holiday, especially staying in a holiday home owned by the parents of one of the friends - at least one of the group would know the area.

I would feel much happier knowing that it was a mixed group and there would be males around. Being on holiday isn't going to make any difference to whether any of the boys and girls involved sleep with each other - they can do that just as easily at home. And if anything terrible was to go wrong, you could get to Spain very quickly if necessary.

Maybe not legally but practically/emotionally they are still under parental care.

Also, presumably they will all have phones with them, so could be contacted at any time. Things like that didn't exist in my teens, and it was even a major kerfuffle trying to ring home from a public call box.

I did allow DS to do this but he is absurdly sensible. I explained all the consequences and pitfalls. He went inter railing and had the time of his life. He was actually 15 when he set off and 16 when he got home :)

I would not allow it. My DD is 16 and asked the same thing, mixed group of kids. DD was adamant everyone else was allowed but when I asked the other parents they all said no as well! You might find no one else is allowed too.

Im not sure why you want to use that to justify some pervy 45 year old man dating an 18 year old. Do you have an agenda here? 🤔 My son would have the sense not to date some pervy older woman though as he’d see the imbalance and would also see her as boring compared to the females around his own age. Weird thing to bring up though. Very dodgy. Keep away from the youngsters maybe

I am not justifying that so stop taking things out of context and twisting my words. I am saying that people who think a 16 yo is old enough to go away on an unsupervised holiday abroad and using the ''but they are mature for their age and are an adult'' would soon change their tune if the teenager started dating an older man. They'd say that ''she's just a kid, she's not got maturity etc''.

I'm pointing out the double standard, not justifying it.

No chance unless you want to be a granny early........

Why are there people trying to push this? It’s weird.

My son as a 16 year old being able to deal with an emergency situation if it occurred and wanting to spend a holiday with other 16 year olds is nothing like him dating a 26 year old. In fact, he was mature enough to see why that wouldn’t be ok. And he wouldn’t be interested in them. Or you.

Yes, definitely. I started going on holidays alone with friends at 15 and had a blast.

If it was within a reasonable drive in the UK then yes, but abroad no.

I will go against the grain and I would. DD is friends with boys and girls and they would go away as friends. They’d have phones and if the worst happened you can be in Spain pretty quickly.

I think it’s too young. I went away with friends at 17. I’d rather my dd waited until 18.

My daughter has always been mature for her age. She left home at 16 to go to dance college and lived with a landlady. However I was still classed as her legal parent/guardian at college.

I would not have allowed her to go abroad without an adult at 16

Both she and Ds matured massively between the ages of 16 & 18. There is a big difference.

No I wouldn't. In the U.K. yes but not abroad.

if the worst happened you can be in Spain pretty quickly

not near quick enough though.

Bless em, NO.

Why are there people trying to push this? It’s weird.
My son as a 16 year old being able to deal with an emergency situation if it occurred and wanting to spend a holiday with other 16 year olds is nothing like him dating a 26 year old. In fact, he was mature enough to see why that wouldn’t be ok. And he wouldn’t be interested in them. Or you

nobody is trying to push anything and if your son is anything like you I would say he has the common sense and maturity of a 6 year old.

My son was mature enough to go on holiday without parents at 16, to deal with anything that came up. He was also mature enough to know the reasons why it’s not healthy for a 16 year old to date a 26 year old. If your 16 year old doesn’t understand that, I agree they shouldn’t be allowed to go on holiday without parents. I’d probably worry about them going to the local shop though if they didn’t see the issue with it.

For a start I’d have to apply for a passport.

No. Not at 16 it’s too young and not without an adult on site
i would agree if a set of parents were there same location and keeping an eye on safety

Well, we seem to be doing well. He’s 19 now and still very sensible. But if it makes you feel better to say that, that’s ok.

Because 16 year old only have sex abroad when mum of dad aren’t there?

It’s a tricky age as I said before, and there may be many valid reasons to not let them go depending on the child, but this reason is not thought through at all.