I think Kirstie Allsopp is right to let her 15-year-old son go Interrailing – and I plan to let my teenage daughter do the same next summer. I went to Paris on my own at 16 in 1985, and that was long before the added safety of being able to track kids on their mobile phones. I don’t remember my parents thinking my solo adventure was unusual, but then two years earlier, they’d already packed me off to live with a French exchange family for two weeks to learn the language – and all I came back with was several love bites.
The Location, Location, Location presenter’s son had already finished his GCSEs and has since turned 16, so he’s a year older than my teenager. And let’s face it, he probably didn’t have to slum it in backpacker hostels with the cockroaches and carry his own bog roll for three weeks across Europe. But the subject of holidaying alone had already come up with my own daughter after we got back from our European trek this summer, and she announced she was going to Amsterdam with her friends once she’s done her GCSEs next year.
Obviously this is all on the proviso that she’s out of the doghouse by then after nicking my gin and getting legless with her mates earlier this week. Since disgracing herself with my half full bottle of Gordons, I’m not sure that my vomity teen should be allowed out to the corner shop – let alone to a city well known for its lax attitudes to drugs. “Perhaps Delft would be a nicer destination for you all? It’s whe.