"Precisely. When I look back at the things I did when I was Nat's age (and I was a relatively tame kid), I can't believe how stupid I was. Teenagers think they are immortal and that's never going to change. But of course adults who forget what it was like to be a teenage on a class trip will blame poor Nat."
I agree, and so must all of you. Ten years ago, when my older daughter was around 24, she looked at me and said, "I am so sorry for the grief I put you through when I was a teenager." (She, too, was a relatively tame kid.) I thought that was so mature of her to admit that. However, if she wanted to go to Aruba with her friends at the age of 18, and I said, "No," I would have been the meanest mom on earth. She begged me for flying lessons and soloed in a Cessna at the age of 16 or 17. She seemed so mature, and her flight instructors assured me that she was one of the best students they ever had. I look back now and say, "What was I thinking?" (She didn't even have her driver's license.) If something happened to her, I would have been BH with some people blaming me. Since nothing bad happened, she and I could say that it was such a wonderful experience for her, and she was accepted into Embry Riddle.
Let's face it, we all want our kids to be happy, to spread their wings, to give them new experiences, and besides, there have been hundreds of trips made by teens to all parts of the world. If we wanted to "protect" our children, we wouldn't give them a car, or the keys to ours....we wouldn't have even given them a bicycle. I have a neighbor who's son died on his bike, one friend's son on a swing set. Do we deny our children these?
Something went so wrong here, and through all this, we've all become a little wiser. Then again, if it weren't for BH, as many of us feel, we wouldn't know about this tragedy. How many other misfortunes like this have we not heard about? It has made us all a little wiser.
I think monkeywrench's suggestion in post # 292 is a good one to a few Freepers: "Go start a safety thread."
God bless Natalee.
It's a valid point. It's not mexico, for example.
He he he...