Posted by Adam Quinan on August 25, 2009 at 18:12:43 user Adam.
In Reply to: Re: The boundaries of parental responsibility posted by Elizabeth on August 25, 2009 at 15:28:33:
I, too, think that I am fairly good at letting my children go, but I also would have grave doubts about allowing anyone as young as that to take off on such a trip. I don't know this particular individual child but generally, young people are not always good decision makers, they often have not yet developed the physical strength and stamina (the latter being far more important) to deal with emergencies and tough conditions. Most would also not have the mental stamina to withstand stressful experiences.
I don't consider that disaster would be inevitable, but I also wonder about the maturity and responsibility of the parents. It may be that this child could succeed, but I would like to see evidence that they had had the training and developed the skills needed and that there have been some trial runs on less challenging adventures first.