Kirstie Allsopp Defends Letting Her 15-Year-Old Son Travel Around Europe

The TV presenter Kirstie Allsopp has defended her decision to let her 15-year-old son Interrail across Europe without her, on the grounds that she worries more about “cars and drugs” than travel.

Allsopp’s decision sparked controversy on social media, with some people believing that her son, Oscar Hercules, who turns 16 today, was too young to travel around Europe for three weeks with a teenage friend.

Speaking to the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, Allsopp said: “He’s a very sensible young man, he’s never been in trouble at school, so when he said he wanted to do this I thought: ‘Right, OK, good on you.’”

She acknowledged her internal conflict over her son’s absence for much of the summer. “I struggled on an emotional level because I knew I’d be not seeing him for quite a lot of this summer, and he’s only got two more years of school and then he’ll be at university. As a parent there’s always that thing of: ‘Oh, I want to be with my child,’ or ‘Is it good for them to do their own thing?’”

Allsopp expressed greater concern over the risks associated with newly qualified drivers or the drug culture at music festivals. She was also asked whether she would allow a daughter the same freedom. Allsopp confirmed she would have made “exactly the same” decision.

She explained, “Girls face different dangers, but statistically boys are more at danger from violent attacks from strangers. The dangers girls can come across as we all know are often from people they know.”

Allsopp said she believed there was a misconception among many parents that the world had become more dangerous. Citing Hans Rosling’s book, Factfulness, she emphasized the importance of looking at evidence and said that “in previous generations people did things far younger.”

She gave examples from her own family: her father-in-law joined the Arctic convoys at 16, her mother went to university in South Africa at 15, and another relative joined the army at 17.

Allsopp voiced her concerns about the mental health crisis among young people, questioning whether parental fear and worry might contribute to it. She said, “We have to ask ourselves, how much of this is because of our fear and our worry?”

Source: The Guardian