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!

I remember that. Shovelling in coins in the local currency and hoping that you get to communicate all the essential news before being cut off!

It's really astonishing how dramatically communications have developed in such a short space of time, relatively speaking. Kids now have never known a world where you can't call internationally on a whim, speaking as long as you like, for free.

It won't be happening here,, but the world is a very different place for the wealthy,with money and connections

No need to be snarky. I wasn’t babied at that age but wouldn’t have been mature enough to go interrailing. Everyone’s different.

Exactly. I found a place in Italy after calling around all afternoon and sending signed copies of mine and the other parents passports. And it was a hotel. Youth hostel would touch them. The kids went again this year to a different country but cat sat in a friends empty flat to avoid the accommodation drama

Not if I’m paying half! And running them to the airport at 4 am! I certainly get a say thanks very much!

And as young attractive teenage girls on their first holiday without parents, I wanted to
be sure they were travelling somewhere suitable, and not where they would be subject to lots of hassle from men. Surely it’s normal to be concerned and to steer a bit?

I’m all for independence but parenting doesn’t completely stop at eighteen! Just look at the number of parents in your local IKEA this weekend buying stuff with new university students.

Lots of teen and young adult men combine alcohol with swimming on holiday and dive in to a too-shallow pool or get swept out to sea. Or they get mugged or assaulted in a local tourist nightspot.

They have to learn how to handle these things but it’s best to learn gradually. I wouldn’t want them hiking around S Africa on their first solo trip abroad for example and as a parent of course I am going to advise and express my opinion.

We’ve always found hostels mostly fine for under 18s in this country, though I don’t think they let them stay in dorms.

I wonder if anyone has asked KA the question? I’d be curious how they managed this.

DS from 16 onwards, although probably could have navigated ok at late 15, managed the train by himself and all the London Underground, but he couldn’t stay over (with his mates in tow) as none of them were 18! How is this manageable abroad? Must have taken LOTS of planning!

I travelled alone by train from North West England to Bordeaux in the summer I finished my GCSEs. I survived.

Teenagers used to go out and work, start families etc. And whilst it's good that we no longer expect that of them, we do still need to teach them to be independent and stop infantilising them.

No doubt it is.

However, my friend and I were very, very working class and just saved up from working double shifts waitressing, and went.

I look back at us fondly.
I am now a slightly anxious adult who overthinks and finds travel a bit of a challenge.

So wonderful to think of the sixteen year old me, never having been abroad who shrugged and thought ‘why not?’.

Adventires when young are so important

It’s actually pretty common in my daughter previous school as a post GCSE trip, mostly Ibiza, Greece or Croatia and one went on her own to Russia. (This was a four years ago)

That's because it was the 80s
in the 80s I went by myself on holiday on a train with no accommodation booked and it was fine
These days aie bnbs won't allow under 18: and most hostels and hotels without parental letters and signed passports and faced communication with manager
st 17 it's easier in places like berlin. Which is why I think they stayed with friends and family

I bet they travelled from friend to friend. Or accommodation was prearranged by parents.

100%. Equally, there are plenty of 15yos who’ve grown up with no money who’re really streetwise and resourceful, can survive on a tight budget etc. Lots of kids are young carers or live semi-independently at 16 (in care).

I think it comes down to the individual kid’s needs, personality and confidence, whatever their background. But prior experiences and money deffo helps.

So depends on the child. But I hope I would have the courage to let them go if they were mine.

Youth hostels, it's what they're for. Some are amazing, some are a bit scuzzy, the vast majority are nice.

I am now a slightly anxious adult who overthinks and finds travel a bit of a challenge

Same here. I used to be much more adventurous than I am now, although never the sort of person who would have gone to Equador and slept in a tent with creepie crawlies (which a friend of the same age did and laughed at me when I said yuck). But interrailing around Europe would have been amazing, it wasn't something I could have afforded as a late teen/student.

When I was 17 I went to Germany on my own to stay with a friend. Weird to think that these days it might not have been allowed in case I was being trafficked!

I would prefer mine in hostels with other young people than in posh hotels with older ones.

On the hostel/hotel thing, it could have all been pre-booked and paid for by her and the hotels had parental permission on their records? More likely she has lots of friends in various places though.

I think it's brilliant. Not sure I'd be so relaxed with my own 15 year old doing this but so many kids have no idea how to fend for themselves which follows them into adulthood. You only have to look at some of the teams on Race Around The World to see they have no idea how to budget or use public transport or where countries are.

I went abroad on holiday with friends at 17. Looking back we were very young. But we were sensible and always stuck together. Kirsty knows her son best.

Not too young to be registered as a young carer - to not have normal teen life, to wipe arse, feed, change bed linen, remember about meds and never have carefree time (my neighbour). But to go travelling? Nooooo, perish the thought.

Much as I dislike KA as a TV face and general patronising bossyboots, I suspect she's not the sort of mum who showers her kids with money and credit cards. It's practically intrinsic to her personality that she'd tend towards the opposite, I think. She'd give him a ham sandwich and a kagool and tell him to make his own way to the station.

Well sure if they are taking your money then you get to control it, but that’s not an automatic assumption at 18. Lots of kids work and pay for themselves and thus decide where they go.

My son did a solo trip like that with his friends when he was 15 and his friends were 16. They did all the planning but parents kept a pretty close eye and were a bit of a support team. I was a bit concerned obviously but my son managed perfectly and it was the first of many adventures and he is now an independent, capable young man. If they can, and are responsible enough, it's a brilliant experience.

That’s a great story, how interesting

however

1. british navy still using cat on nine tails at time of trafalgar and disciple on board was “rigid” as an understatement
2. what we now consider as anal rape was not unknown on ships, even Royal Navy. Small boys in the sole charge of a group of older men, who are at sea for often weeks, is not a mix that will end well for everyone. Who the hell knows what these powder moneys, or drum boys went through? It was just not discussed then….

She presumably knows her kid, though. Good for him. Bet he had fun.