To let my 15yo son inter-rail around Europe for 3 weeks with his 16yo pal?

[Carebearsonmybed]

They will visit Paris Brussels, Amsterdam, Berlin, Munich, Marseille, Toulouse, Barcelona & Madrid.

It's perfectly safe, right?

It’s context and individual specific.

It’s fine for some and not fine for others. Parents make this call as individuals. The State doesn’t decide.

In this case it was the right call, and safe.

Also it’s almost irrelevant given he turned 16 during the trip which is old enough to join the military, be in a war zone and risk your life for your country, or to get married and have children of your own.

The thing I found funny was she decided to boast about this, and then acted all shocked that most people thought it was batshit. She's so out of touch with the general population it's off the scale! I guess it's safer if your parents are multimillionaires so you don't have to stay anywhere dangerous or sleep rough, and if you called you dad he could stop it, oh yeah..
Sorry, but I felt pulp lyrics somehow seemed appropriate?

I went off cycling round UK with a couple of friends staying at Youth Hostels when I was 15, one friend was 16. There were no mobiles in those days.

It never occurred to me that my DM might have been worried.

It was aeons ago though.

Children travel to and from school from overseas to UK on their own all the time.

Also it’s almost irrelevant given he turned 16 during the trip which is old enough to join the military, be in a war zone and risk your life for your country, or to get married and have children of your own.

16 year olds can join the military but are not allowed to go to a war zone until they are an adult.

Why? You may not like her or agree with her but she hardly pretends not to be rich and posh.

BobbyBiscuits · Today 12:45
The thing I found funny was she decided to boast about this, and then acted all shocked that most people thought it was batshit”

Did they? Most commentators I’ve heard have been supportive and feel young people aren’t given enough independence now.

I don’t get the issue at all, KA is rich enough to get on a flight to anywhere fast at short notice if there’s an issue, and I’m sure her kids have the best tech for following location etc.

Most of the comments I’ve seen seem to be on team Kirsty for this one though.

I imagine they also have a minder discreetly following the kids. If DS wanted to do this I would probably let him but pay someone to follow at a distance.

@Tiredalwaystired I think it's fine for a 15 yo who's just finished GCSEs to go to a festival or something but travelling round loads of countries alone seems too much!
I lived away from home at 16 so same age, but I would never have had the confidence to go travelling alone with one friend of the same age.
I guess he's probably travelled loads already as his family have the means. They probably have homes abroad etc. so I guess it would make sense a kid like that would be ready.
I know I wouldn't have been, nor would most kids I know now.

This is what I find slightly confusing - I had assumed that most hotels and hostels have a minimum age for staying unaccompanied???

If, on the other hand, he was travelling between different family friends or relatives then that’s a completely different story. That’s not quite the same as travelling alone.

I did very similar as a solo female traveller only a couple of years older in the days before smart phones so no access to Google maps/translate, online banking etc. and limited contact with parents back home. I was absolutely fine. Overprotective/over involved parenting and a lack of risk taking is a huge contributing factor to the epidemic of child/youth anxiety we are experiencing at the moment.

And if he hadn’t? All hell would have been let loose!

But he did. 🤷‍♀️

He was probably safer thsn my 15 year old was at reading festival 10 years ago Let's get serious his parents are rich and have lots of contacts in Europe.

@Notcontent 100% agree with you. Staying in hostels at 15 without an accompanying adult and sharing a room with random adult men is utterly and completely different to staying with and travelling between relatives and friends.

In any case I have absolutely no sympathy for her as I have no idea why she felt the need to share the details of her 15 year old son's holiday plans on social media.

.

Yes, I know.

@Butwhybecause actually that’s the intention but not the practice and the UK is frequently criticised for it by UN committees on child soldiers: 16 years olds can and do end up in conflict (especially in the navy when ships get redeployed into hostilities but don’t have chance to disembark the child soldiers first).

See this excerpt from an official UN report, with recommendations to the UK to stop actively recruiting children (16 and 17 year olds) to our military (were the only country in Europe to do so) and to stop sending them to wars.

Although active service in Afghanistan does make EU inter-railing sound a breeze by comparison!

https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/lib-docs/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session13/GB/CSI_UPR_GBR_S13_2012_ChildSoldiersInternational_E.pdf

What a fuss!!
I suspect he's probably post GCSE, Y 11, with August birthday.
So - almost 16 anyway.
I went - post O level (so, yes, aeons ago) - aged 15, almost 16 - on holiday with 16 year old friends.
We hired a canal boat! For a week. (I assume our parents had to "sign for it's insurance wise etc).

@StrongandNorthern But nobody surely would raise an eyebrow about a 15 year old simply going away with friends at this age without an adult. It's the travelling across Europe to multiple cities.

I wouldn't want my 15 year old sleeping unaccompanied in a hostel with random adults. Train stations across Europe attract huge levels of crime and I would worry that at 15/16 they're not equipped to deal with a frightening situation.

It's these August babies! Not 16 until nearly the start of the next term.

Always wanting to keep up with their peers, how dare they.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c75n1y7gqz5o

Someone referred her to social services! I don’t agree with her decision but that’s a bit much.

RU OK hun?

Like a pp, it was the norm to go away when you finished school. I was a March birthday, so didn't have to go to school once I'd done my last exam in 1984. We'd been playing out all day from the age of 6 and going camping etc from around 13. My middle DD could easily travel around with a group of friends at that age. KA has friends and family all over Europe and the money to go straight out to were he was or fly him home etc. It's actually more dangerous for lads like Jay Slater, who have limited resources going away at 18/19. A group of teen lads wouldn't be the easiest target for pick pockets etc. There'd be much more easy pickings. As for hostels, there was enough of them, to be just them to a room. I've found it interesting the language used towards him, across the news, in contrast to language used towards children/teen asylum seekers.