Taking DD and DD BFF (15) abroad, proving parental permission

[warmbath]

Hi, me and DH are taking DD and her BFF on holiday in May to Europe. I understand from Google that I need written parental permission to do so. The Government website reads - A letter from the person with parental responsibility for the child is usually enough to show you’ve got permission to take them abroad.
Not sure what 'usually' means. Has anyone done this and what content did your letter include? Thanks

When I have taken the DC's friends who were under 16 with me I had a letter from their parents. They got a free template online but it gave childs name and passport numbers, parents names, my name, dates of travel and was witnessed (by a neighbour). The first time we did it (Portugal) I was asked for it and the Passport officer said it was good I had letters because without them it would have been a "problem"

My DD went on holiday to Spain with her friend's family so I emailed a letter of permission to the parents. I found a template online and used that.

They didn't get stopped so they never had to show the letter.

Best to check the rules for the country you are traveling to. There may be a form or require a copy of their parents passport.

We are travelling to France

Can anyone share a decent template they used, would be very grateful. Thanks all

The letter template is a good idea.
We always carried a letter for dss.
The only time we've been questioned, exdp, dss, my dd and I (all with different surnames) was coming back into the UK, I was hoping they'd refuse us entry and send us on the next plane back to Greece 😁
I ended up saying "blended family" and they waved us through, unfortunately.

Definitely a problem in Portugal without it!!
I speak from experience

Cue a panicked phone call to DDs BFF parents at stupid o'clock clock in the morning and dictating an email for them to send to Portuguese broder control!
Strangely, not required on the homeward bound journey though.

Ha ha ha love it!

@Hoppinggreen glad I asked, sounds mega stressful, hope you enjoyed your hols anyway

I’ve done this twice- once for DS when he went on his own at 13 to Panama to visit his grandfather, and a couple of years ago when we took DD’s 15 year old friend to the US. For Panama I wrote a letter giving permission for our son to be travelling on his own (he used the airline’s accompanied minor programme so they also needed it for handover at the other end) and included my passport details, email address and phone number.

For DD’s friend, it was the same but with her mother providing her details. The only questioning we got was on the way back in Ireland where they seemed quite suspicious- the outward leg had been fine! I wanted to say, “But we’re bringing her BACK now, not kidnapping her!”

Thank you
Wasn't stressful in the slightest though because we did have the letter. I may even have heard about it on MN

We took DD's friend to the US with us one holiday. We got both parents to write a short letter showing permission, with photocopies of their passports and contact numbers.
Officials spoken to her but didn't ask for evidence or letters.

Similarly Dd went away with my parents. We did the same - again but asked for.

I’ve done this, we took photo copies of both parents passports/driving licenses and a copy of the kids birth certificate and got them to write a statement in the same page saying that they give permission and can be contacted on X number. The airport staff wanted to see it after we landed and were clearing customs, port staff at the ferry didn’t give a crap and honestly couldn’t have cared less about us leaving the country with two kids with different names. They literally didn’t even look at the papers and compare to faces. But when we went on a cruise ( me, starter add her kids with a different surname) it took 20 minutes of form filling in before we could clear security and they were HER kids?! Very odd.

We took DSs friend with us to Greece one year. We found a template online that his mother completed. We were never actually asked for it and no one even spoke to the child to ask who we were or where he was going but I wouldn’t have risked not having it.

On the flip side when I was travelling with my DD (same name as me), my sister & niece on the eurotunnel. They spent a lot of time questioning my niece (different name to my sister) about who we were, how we all knew each other and where we were going etc, she was 19 and an adult at the time (looked younger but wasn’t).