I am astonished that Kirstie Allsopp was reported to Children’s Services for allowing her son to travel abroad at 15 (Kirstie Allsopp reported to Children’s Services for allowing her 15-year-old son to travel abroad, August 25). I left school at 15 in 1973, then left home and found a job within months. My brother went on holiday to Spain with friends at 14. I sent my son to New Zealand alone at 14 to stay with his uncle. Until last year you could marry at 16 with parental consent. I cannot understand what was done to put this young man in danger. As responsible parents we should send our children out to find their own way in the world. At 15 they are young adults, not big kids.
Sharon Murray
Carlisle
It is not clear why Kirstie Allsopp feels so attacked when child protection services investigate her 15-year-old son’s trip abroad. They have not said she was a bad mother, or that he should not have gone, or that the child protection concerns were justified. They have simply investigated and this investigation will remain on file for future reference if required. Isn’t that what we expect of child protection services, that they will investigate allegations to see whether or not there is cause for concern? As for whether the original allegation was malicious, well, many of them think so too. That is why social workers approach it with an open mind, as they appear to have done in this case.
Sylvia Rose
Totnes, Devon
It is with growing disbelief that I read of Kirstie Allsopp’s 15-year-old son’s European trip with a friend (Kirstie Allsopp defends letting her son travel Europe at 15, Report, 21 August). In 1956, at the age of 15, I hitchhiked to Copenhagen with a classmate. As we were not offered a lift from Hook of Holland, we decided to split up and meet at the youth hostel of our destination. We did so, and did the same on the way back. This was not my first adventure, however. At the age of nine, with my eleven-year-old brother – and with our parents’ permission – we travelled from Deptford in London to Chislehurst (then in Kent), where we pitched our tent. We intended to stay for a week. It rained for three days. We ate all our provisions and returned home considerably earlier than expected.
Dr. Jack Fendley
London
In the late 1970s, aged 17, I travelled alone from London to Paris for 17 days. As a naive girl (I was not diagnosed with autism until I was 60), I returned with improved French; I was excellent with my money and had saved enough to extend the original two weeks by three more days; I was strengthened by the culture I had experienced and had a much better understanding of how predatory men can be and how to navigate safely within it. Allowing me to travel on my own earnings was the best thing my parents ever did for me.
Specified name and address
In 1958, money was tight. I wanted to cycle from Southall, now in west London, to the Black Forest. My parents said I could come with them if I could raise the money – expecting that I wouldn’t be able to do it. When I had the money together, my parents got cold feet. My grandfather spoke up energetically on my behalf. Promises had to be kept.
I cycled to Germany, had the best time of my life there and came back on my 15th birthday. In a few weeks, when I’m 80, I’ll cycle part of the way back on another bike with my wife, who also cycles – we’ve been married for 54 years – and a camper van.
Children need to be allowed to take risks. Of course, this can end in tragedy, but it is more likely to be life-affirming and give them confidence for the years to come.
Aidan Roe
Manchester
I travelled by train around Europe with my son when he was 10 so he knows how easy it is and how much fun it is. I did my first Interrail trip around Europe with another girl when we were 17. We financed the trip ourselves. She had a Saturday job and I had won money in a writing competition. On our mother-son trip he made a lot of decisions about platforms and times and deciphered timetables and signs in languages he didn’t know. He’s 16 now and could certainly find his way around Europe by train with no problem. He would get on with the people and stay out of trouble. Would I let him? No.
Cathy Comerford
London
Sixty years ago, my school friend Nick (151/2) and I (16) enjoyed a trainspotting holiday travelling around Scotland on a Rail Rover ticket, sleeping on overnight trains or in station waiting rooms. Apart from briefly sharing a compartment on an overnight train to Aberdeen with a talkative drunk who thankfully remembered to get off at Cumbernauld, we had a trouble-free and memorable trip and back then we could only contact our parents via a phone box. How attitudes have changed.
Graham Thompson
West Burton, North Yorkshire
Well done, Kirstie Allsopp, for giving your son independence. I’m sure he will have been in touch every day on his mobile phone. In the 1970s, when I was 16, I took a three-day non-stop journey across Europe to Athens on the Magic Bus, then spent nine weeks backpacking around the Greek islands by ferry. My only contact with home was when I missed the return bus and called home the only way possible: a 30-second call from the Athens switchboard. When I told my mum I would be a week late, her response was, ‘Have you got a nice tan?’ The best holiday of my life.
Andrew Keeley
Stockton Heath, Cheshire
Your account of Kirstie Allsopp’s report to the welfare office for allowing her 15-year-old son to travel to Europe reminded me of my first trip there with my brother in the late 1970s. I was 10 and my brother 12 when my father put us on a train to London in York. With the help of several adults, we managed to get through London, take a train to Dover, the hovercraft to Calais and then a train to Paris where we were picked up by my parents’ friends. At the time, this didn’t seem particularly strange and we both thought it was a great adventure.
David Chadwick
Hutton Rudby, North Yorkshire
