AIBU to think its wrong for a group of 14 year old boys and girls to be camping out unsupervised.

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Ok so its not my problem, thank god but DD has said that some of her class mates are camping out on the hills at 14. I'm glad she didnt ask as I wouldn't let her do this. IABU

Jamie, that's awful. I can understand your protective stance now.

Oh dear this is what my 14 yr old ds did last night. And they didn't even take a tent with them about half of his year group I think, in the woods somewhere. It's normal round here, very rural location. Have to say am a bit as he fell asleep at 10am and not yet woken up.

So sorry Jamie-I can see where you are coming from now.

It's a tricky one and there is definately no one answer,

I think it depends on your child and your relationship with them, their friends, where you live, and their previous life experiences

you have to let them go and some point, I remember the kids at Uni who had never touched drugs, went out, had sex were all the ones that went totally overboard and got into all sorts of messes

but in your circumstance jamie I would possible act the same as you, what a terrible thing for you all to go through

AbbeyA, I totally agree. A lot of 14 yr olds will not have the confidence to have sex at their age. It's not just a case of getting down and doing it, is it!

Bamboostalks, I'm not kidding myself, I know sex isn't a feature in my sons life yet. Yes it may be soon, who knows, but like I and others have said, he could do it anywhere, doesn't have to be on a mixed sex (excuse the pun) camping trip!

As for boys being rampant, I am inclined to think that actually girls are worse at this age. They mature faster and the ones who are going to are pretty obvious as far as I can see.

I hope we have raised DS to respect women and their feelings and to know right from wrong.

You'd have to really know my son and his friends, male and female, to understand what I am saying.

Jamie, I am so sorry that happened to your daughter. I totally understand why you'd want to be a lot more protective. I went through the same thing from 9 to 16 and I am very protective of my children.

At the same time though, I know DS1 will be off to university in 4 years time and he needs life skills to prepare him for the big wide world (I'm already quivering at the thought of my boy leaving me )

Communication is the key with teenagers. If you talk to them, they talk to you. They aren't too young to have the old 'let's talk about sex/drink/drugs and the dangers' thing. In fact you don't even need to sit down and have a serious talk. You can let them know by having a normal everyday conversation. For example, my son knows that 3 of my cousins had a child whilst they were still at school and he knows that they haven't actually got anywhere in life as a result

All my son wants to do atm is have a laugh with his friends (oh and play his guitar..etc etc)

i guess if you live in the middle of a town i might be more weary about it.

Some kids at 14 are very sensible I run a Guide unit and find by the age of 14 they can mamage most things, but to leave them unsupervised is a no no in my book. Security inplications.

Message withdrawn

I went camping aged 12 with Guides and there was a couple of 14 yr old girls there who attracted the attention of some boys also staying at the campsite and smuggled them into their tent. One of them got pregnant

I would imagine that any mixed camping trip these days would feature booze (so much more than 4 dimamond whites), red bull, drugs and group sex filmed on a mobile and splattered over Bebo!