Originally Posted by
Yahillwe
I again agree with you, and am glad that my kids did enjoy a free youth.
But it would take only ONE incident and their lives is changed forever. And so is the life of the parent. The incident that I mentioned was the parents of the child finally allowed him to meet them 2 blocks away for the first time. The child was 8 years old, got lost and asked for directions from this man who was a resident of the same community. I am not going to say anymore what happened to this child, but it isn't nice...It only takes ONE incidence to change a family's life. Are you willing to risk it?
Yes, frankly, because I think the price one would pay otherwise for isolating one's kids would be too high. There's a much greater risk of (for example) a child out on its own being hit by a car than being accosted by a pervert, and the consequences of being hit by a car are likely to be at least as bad, and in many unfortunate cases much, much worse.
I have a 15-year-old son who has always been encouraged to be independent; we live in central London and he has travelled to school on his own by public transport (bus or Tube) since he was about 10. Over the last couple of years he has been out in the evening on his own or with friends on the other side of the city. As a result he's aware that there are some very odd characters out there but that's part of life; he's a lot more streetwise than many more protected kids of his age. Clearly we give him a longer leash than we might a 15-year-old daughter, but I always remind myself that he'll be an adult in a couple of years. If he were protected now, he'd only be forced to find it all out later.
Actually he's about to take his first flight completely alone, i.e. not UM and not accompanied to and from the airport. (Intra-Schengen so no passport control questions pace the other thread.) My main concern is that he doesn't mislay his passport...