Posted on 08/26/2024 2:21:04 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Kirstie Allsopp posted online about her teen son's trip around Europe. Then someone reported her to the government.
British TV personality Kirstie Allsopp let her 15-year-old go on a three-week train trip around Europe with a friend, age 16. Allsopp then published a proud, happy comment about it on X—which has prompted an investigation by child protective services.
Last week, Allsopp wrote this:
The post inspired plenty of nostalgia from folks fondly recalling their own youthful travels. But many others criticized her, raising all the usual raucous: He's too young. Anything could have happened. The world is unsafe. And so on.
Allsopp came out fighting. Sure, every kid is different, but "the danger is in underestimating them, not in setting them free," she told the world in a Daily Mail article. Her mother-in-law, she noted, went off to college at age 15. Her father-in-law joined the Merchant Navy in World War II at age 16. Were their parents neglectful?
Maybe that depends on who you ask.
Allsopp received a text from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC), her local child protective services agency. A social worker told Allsopp that she was obliged by law to look into any case that anyone called into the agency. Allsopp asked who had made the call. The agency would not say. Allsopp tried to explain that it was probably someone who disapproved from afar and was trying to teach her a lesson (like in this case). The agency said that didn't matter. The social worker added that it was "standard practice" for the agency's case file regarding the matter to remain open until her child turned 25.
That's quite a long time to consider someone a child, let alone a victim.
In this case, the problem is not just the blood sport of mom blaming. It's also that the government is given no freedom to err on the side of common sense. Agents are obligated to be obtuse and obsess over imaginary physical dangers to children while ignoring how all of this requisite paranoid parenting might negatively impact kids' mental health. Overprotected kids are actually in danger of depression, anxiety, and passivity.
Allsopp herself admits that she said no when her son first proposed the trip. But then she thought about it more and realized he was ready for this adventure—that it was her job as a good parent to safeguard his confidence, self-respect, development, and joy in life by letting him go.
"It's up to parents to decide who is or isn't grown-up enough to start spreading their wings," she wrote.
In the U.S. at least, eight states have passed "Reasonable Childhood Independence" laws stating that neglect is when a parent puts a child in serious, obvious, unreasonable danger—not any time a parent lets the kids do something by themselves. Maybe it's time to adopt a similar law across the pond.
6 year olds go to school by train in Japan
The British Navy used to take boys who were younger than that and send them sailing around the world.
be interesting to know if this woman is a liberal or a conservative. remember friends, “conservatives seek agreement while liberals demand compliance” L.Star
Meh. If her son (and his friend) is smart and responsible, and have prepared a firm itinerary, its no big deal.
I could have easily managed it when I was 15-16
The leftist new ethos sexuality’s kids too young and adultizes them to old.
Old enough to whack his wiener off, but too young for a train trip. Ahh, to be a progressive.
I went around a couple countries in Europe when I was 17.
A friend and his brother did a 2 week bicycle tour when he was 14. His brother was 16. His mom made him go to keep an eye on his older brother.
They later opened a bike shop.
In the movie, “Taken”, the hero’s (played by Liam Neeson) daughter is 17-years old who travels to Paris with a friend and is kidnapped.
Probably could have used a better verb than whack off to avoid the double meaning. Had to read it twice.
I spent almost three months backpacking around Europe by myself starting when I was still 17 (turned 18 in London). I had a rail pass and no itinerary at all, just went wherever I happened to go. I might have been a bit young for that at 15, though.
“But many others criticized her, raising all the usual raucous: He’s too young. Anything could have happened. The world is unsafe. And so on.”
Before the Great Migration no one would have given a second thought to teens traveling without adults. Now things are different, but Europeans know it’s best left unsaid.
Maybe that was purposeful, we’ll never know.
Letting a 15 year old go on a trip around Europe without supervision is outrageous.
I backpacked around Europe when I was 16, with my 15 year old buddy. No fixed itinerary, no cell phones, just a collect call to parents once a week to say we were OK. We got separated and both made our way back across the continent safely.
They turned into real men back then. In Britain today, they make pansies out of the boys.
retarded
I was living on my own and in college at 15
You would have to ask the screenwriters to get a definite answer. I suspect that age was less a factor than the sex of the kidnapped victim.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.