Kirstie Allsop's 15 Year Old Son

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Kirstie Allsop has just posted on X (Twitter) that her 15 year old son has just returned from inter-railing around Europe.

He was accompanied by his 16 year old friend.

AIBU to think this is too young?

These situations may seem OK but at that age they think they are invincible, so they can be impulsive and not make the best decisions, especially when something goes wrong!

Sounds like a post gcse trip? His birthday probably 30 Aug or something.

I went interrailing with friends when i was 16 in the 90s. 4 weeks and we had no contact with parents for those 4 weeks at all.

Can’t believe SS is involved. Surely they have bigger fish to fry.

SS are obliged to be professional and take every complaint seriously. There are some horrendous cases of neglect carried out by rich posh parents that never come to light. Social class should have nothing to do with whether they investigate or not.

I’m sure KA is a good parent but she should have the intelligence and humility to realise that all people get treated the same in these circumstances and she brought this situation on her head in the first place by using her child as Twitter fodder and essentially to boast.

On the radio 4 interview she said it was her DS birthday today so he turned 16 Wednesday just gone

I imagine she knows her son better than we do

My teen DS is still in bed and his biggest decision today will be a roll and bacon or a roll and sausage

A complaint about somebody just weeks away from turning 16 going on a 3 week trip is hardly neglect.

This sort of referral would just be NFA

I doubt SS are 'involved'. They may have had a duty to inform the parent of the referral, but thats all.

she had a call from children's services

what it is to be in the public eye
other parents would be less likely to be shopped

As I said in my post, if you had taken the trouble to read it properly, as far as anyone knows, KA is a good parent.

But once a concern has been raised - probably by a newspaper journalist I would imagine playing games - she must surely understand that they are obliged to take it seriously, because where child safety is concerned, no one is above the law.

KA is at fault though for boasting about her son’s independence on sm when he probably had all of his train tickets planned and booked ahead by his parents and instead of staying in hostels, they were probably staying with family and friends. This is all supposition on my part but I suspect she made a big deal about her child being independent, to show off her superior parenting skills, when in reality the situation was a little different.

So in all likelihood she is getting kick back for misrepresentation and I can’t say I have much sympathy because her son hasn’t had any say in this at all.

she says she has broken no law and was not neglectful

i wonder who made the referral

Kirstie Allsopp reported to social services for allowing son, 15, to travel abroad | Kirstie Allsopp | The Guardian

how can you say she is at fault for boasting ? @Pawsfourbyfourbyfour
all above board
who ever made the referral has sour grapes i bet

Wow a lot of presumption there.

So they follow up every single call and there is no screening?

We’re talking about a near 16 year old going on a 3 week holiday. That is what the call would have been about. If common sense isn’t allowed to prevail at the early stages of concerns being raised no wonder SS are so over stretched and children in need don’t get supported when they should.

When I was his age we all went on all kinds of post O level trips alone.

Reports in the press suggest the Council want to visit Allsopp and her son at home. I suspect that the file will be closed or NFA'd by the end of the week.

I do wonder where they stayed but our European neighbours may be less fussy than the UK. Even the YHA requires guests under 16 to be accompanied by and adult.

Pretty sure you could hostel alone from 12 when I was a kid in the seventies.

It amazes me that there are so many posts making a big deal out of "brains not being fully developed until they're 25" when talking about grown men and women in their 20s, but here, sending a 15 year old off with a 16 year old to travel around Europe for weeks is AOK.

I find KAs outrage at being called out about this rather entitled, when she chose to publicise it in the first place, knowing that substantial numbers of people would think the whole thing rash.

But just a few weeks later he is now old enough to join the army and could go on DofE expeditions in the middle of nowhere overnight from 14. We let children far younger have unmonitored access to the entire world in their bedrooms.

But it’s apparently not ok to go youth Hostelling with mums credit card a matter of weeks from turning 16.🤔

The world has gone bonkers!

Someone will have done this to be spiteful because of her family and wealth.

If social services will take such a call seriously, perhaps we should start reporting all those parents who drive SUVs badly and cannot park reasonably as neglect. Or any parent turning up to take or collect their child from school who has not got properly dressed.

The real contribution Kirstie Allsop and all those who take part in property programme of the same ilk is to create a culture where property is seen as some form of speculative investment, which indirectly increased property prices. So some families who could live in well maintained property without damp, mould or insecure length of time, are forced to live in property which harms their health.

I agree . It's to take her down .

I absolutely agree that the complaint was malevolent and wrong, it probably came from a journalist or newspaper editor trying to generate a story, but as a public figure, she should have protected her child’s privacy in the first place.

And she is now reacting with arrogance and outrage to being contacted by SS when she must know that having received a complaint, they are bound to investigate it.

Imagine the furore if the SS said, oh we didn’t bother checking this out essentially because Kirsty is posh and has lots of money and is in the public eye!

I think she could have responded more intelligently and not used her son for clicks or likes or whatever in the first place! Fine if you are on private family WhatsApp or Facebook group that can only be accessed by your nearest and dearest. Not fine if you are a public figure making a point about your great parenting on a public sm platform frequented by journos.

Apart from anything else, she has a duty of care to her son. Who knows what sick wierdos will be on alert now for his next unsupervised trip? Or if not as bad as that, what journalists will be waiting at her front door to take his photo and follow him to school? She should have been more prudent.

but she is saying it wasnt illegal, it wasnt neglect,
if she hadnt responded in public she would have been outed anyway.
she can't win.

Check out what?

He’s now 16 and old enough to join the army, he doesn’t need to be supervised on trips.

I know it was Kirstie that announced on her IG that her son had travelled but surely it was mutually agreed with her husband. I haven't seen him getting any flack for allowing his son yo go way just before his 16th birthday.
The report to SS was clearly done to cause trouble as the lad has seemingly come back unharmed but the case will be on file now. It was a nasty move.

I'm sure she knows her son better than anyone else.
I went inter-railing / backpacking round Europe at almost 16 with three friends of the same age for four weeks during the school holidays.
My friends mum dropped us and our camping gear off at the train station and off we went. Mobile phones hadn't been invented and we phoned home maybe once a week.
My kids did the same at the same age.
Everyone returned safe, sound and bursting to tell our parents all about it.
Getting SS involved is a low blow. I'm sure they have better things to do.