Flying as an unaccompanied minor at age 7

[CrispyClo]

I’m posting on behalf of my sister as she is looking for some external views on the matter.

My niece is 7, birthday was in August. She started a new school in September, which closes for Christmas a week earlier than most state schools. There don’t seem to be a lot of options for childcare during that week as not many schools here close that early so there aren’t any holiday camps.
My sister has booked my niece onto a week long camp abroad for the week. The camp is well reviewed and offers a pick up service for children flying as an unaccompanied minor. My sister initially felt this was a good idea, and booked it.
Now she is having some concerns and is unsure it’s the right choice, mainly as she appreciates 7 is quite young and while the flight isn’t particularly long, they don’t actually have someone sat with them, just cabin crew checking in. She has admitted herself she was fine with it until other people seemed to think it was a reckless parenting choice. I think it will be fine, my sister and I flew as unaccompanied minors often as our dad lived abroad, we were a bit older (maybe 10 the first time) but managed it fine.

AIBU to think my niece will be fine? She’s looking forward to the camp and doesn’t seem phased by the thought of it.

I think you've hit the nail on the head, @SilverPink . This child will have worked out about the family's priorities.

Internalised a lot from what exactly?

I remember going on my first Brownie camp and there was a really awful older girl in my tent. I wanted to go home just to get away from her- she seemed to delight in tormenting me.

What if this little girl comes across another child like that on her camp? She’s 7, so not necessarily equipped to deal with that.

Please just fuck off. I was sexually assaulted by an airport official when travelling alone aged 11. I distinctly remember walking back to my mum and siblings knowing I was never going to tell them and knowing that I didn't really belong with them anymore.

Children cannot protect themselves.

I actually agree about helicopter parenting in general and yes, in the UK, we do tend more that way.

But there are no similarities between letting a 7 year old walk to school alone and sending them off to a foreign country for a week with no familiar adults when you haven't even visited the camp yourself. Surely anyone can see that!!

I wouldn’t do it, personally.

There was a time when this was fairly standard (think parents stationed abroad) but the children had special people flying with them. I’m a lax parent by mumnet standards but even my very sensible eldest daughter wouldn’t have been flying alone at seven.

I think it this scenario I would happily take being called a pearl clutcher than I would a neglectful parent.

What on earth is more important than looking after her own child in the Christmas holidays? Christmas comes every year, school term dates are available a year in advance. Did she not realise that parents have to…you know….parent in the holidays? Can you not help out OP?

The span of tolerance on what children should do alone is certainly wide. On the one hand, no sleepovers ever. On the other, sending a 7-year old off to a week-long camp where she will know no-one, flying as an unaccompanied minor. The first seems to me to be about parental anxiety clouding judgement about the best interests of the child. So many experiences are lost if a child is unable to spend a night without a parent - scouts and guides, sport, orchestras, friends and relations. The second smacks of an inability by the parent to stand in the shoes of a child. It's telling that the mother in this case only questioned her plan when other parents commented on it.

You know mumsnet is large percentage of people who live on uk. We dont have 'camps' like America

I wouldn’t trust the staff to do it properly, quite frankly.

Are you serious? Doesyour sister knowhow to parent? Do you know the potential safeguarding issues here?
I hope for this child's sake this is a joke.

Absolutely this. Nobody cares as much about a child as their parents do. What if the designated person was distracted, it only takes a few seconds for a child to disappear.

No way!

unless she escorted the whole time

Is it really inherently very risky though (compared to things we let our children do regularly like a school trip round a museum where a child could easily go complete AWOL). It’s not as though you can get very far in an airport.

I think the biggest thing is how scary/overwhelming it is likely to feel to a 7yo.

Where have you heard them?

What would happen if the child began to cry and refused to get on the plane? Or got upset when met by strangers at the other end?

I’m asking because this appears to be childcare rather than a holiday so presumably even if upset, your niece is going to have to power through for a week until she’s less inconvenient?

I just think she’s too young for all of that and even if she “copes” she may well look back on it as an upsetting memory.

Yes this. However for the people saying about camps and they'd go with their friends that's not necessarily the case ( and it's better they don't as they'd stick in their little bubble)

When my DDs were kids they had camps called " doit4real" think they started at 10 years old.

I dropped them off at Victoria coach station and off they went on their respective coaches to camps. One to Derbyshire and another to the south coast. Had a whale of a time and went next 2 years ( DD2 twice one year at her request)
As a child I used to order PGL brochures and dream. Couldn't afford such stuff though

Oh my god. That's horrific 💐.
Some people are being very cavalier and dismissive on here, but what happened to you is exactly why there needs to be rigorous safeguarding.

That's all sorted on the UM scheme. Usually the unaccompanied kids are kept all together and taken to gate and handed to cabin crew to board. No one is expecting a 7 year old to navigate the airport.

This is the kind of situation most caring parents would worry about.

I was SA by an older male relative in my grandmothers house. Most cases are more like mine than a randomer at the airport

Yes, but it doesn't mean children shouldn't be protected outside of the home.
We know most attacks happen with people known to the child, but it would of course be foolish not to protect children in all situations.
I'm sorry you had that experience 💐.

It all sounds very boring school culture.

Like most others absolutely not a snowballs chance in hades

My dad moved abroad and I flew on my own from age 7 - I was looked after at both ends of the flight, through security etc, flying is safer than getting the train eg as people are sat down and there aren’t multiple stops. It made me very confident about travelling solo as I grew up too.