TV presenter Kirstie Allsopp has defended her decision to let her 15-year-old son go on an Interrail trip across Europe without her, because she was more worried about “cars and drugs” than the trip.
Ms Alsop's news sparked controversy on social media, with some saying her son Oscar Hercules, who turns 16 on Wednesday, was too young to have been traveling around Europe for three weeks with teenage friends.
She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: “He's a very sensible young man and has never been in trouble at school, so when he said he wanted to do this I thought, 'OK, OK, great'.”
“It was an emotional struggle because I wasn't able to see my son for a long time this summer and he has two more years of school and then he's going to college. As a parent, thoughts like 'I want to be with my child' and 'Is it okay for my child to do what he loves?' always cross your mind.”
She added that she was more afraid of the risks of her son getting into a car with a newly licensed driver or going to a music festival where drugs were being distributed.
Asked if he would have his daughter do the same, the “Location, Location, Location” presenter said Mr Allsopp would have made the “exact same” call.
“Girls face a whole range of risks, but statistically boys are more at risk of stranger violence and as we all know, the risks girls face usually come from people they know,” she said.
Ms Alsop said she believes many parents mistakenly believe the world is becoming more dangerous and said she was influenced by reading “Factfulness”, a book by Swedish academic Hans Rosling, which stressed the importance of looking at the evidence.
“In previous generations, people were doing things at a younger age,” she added, noting that her stepfather joined the Arctic Fleet at 16, her mother went to university in South Africa at 15 and another relative joined the military at 17.
“We are witnessing a youth mental health crisis… We have to ask ourselves: how much of this is due to our own fears and anxieties?”
