Do you let your preteens go alone?

[Sneezie]

This year, my daughter (13) and two cousins (11 & 12) will venture out on their own - a few times. This will be cousins first time at WDW, but my daughter probably knows the lay of the land better than me. They are really looking forward to it. I've even made ADRs for them at the Sci Fi and Prime Time. Since we have park hoppers, they may not even be in the same park as me, but they will have a cell phone to contact us and they'll know what times to meet back at the Pop.

 

[penguin087]

Been thinking about this myself. When we go next year my son will be 13. We go with my friend, her kids will be 13 (my sons best bud) and 7. Last trip we did let them go down to the arcade or food court in the hotel alone without any problems but we never split up in the parks. I know the boys are going to ask because the 7 year old little sister does slow them down. I understand where they are coming from but I am leary plus I know when it all starts the "family" vacation as we know it is over. I guess giving them a couple of hours a day while we do the girlie things would be ok. They are well behaved and will be cell phoned. As far as letting them jump on the bus and go to another park. No way, I'll consider that again when they are about 15.

 

[kkevcamsmom]

We have let our DD15 go off alone or with either DH or myself since she was 12. Granted it was at Six Flags. She has had her own cell phone and calls to check in at least once an hour. We meet for lunch and sometimes she'll hang with us and her younger siblings (DS4 and DS6). We don't worry too much, she's a smart kid and if she feels uncomfortable she calls and comes and finds us. We have talked about WDW and her going off alone and she said she'd like to but would like to see the boys reactions to things too

One time at Six Flags she overheard some 'boys' talking nasty about the girls in front of them and the other girls could hear, the girls were in tears by the time they got to the ride and stood off to the side. My DD told one of the ride supervisors who then talked to the girls. When the boys got off the ride Security was waiting to escort them out of the park

Do I worry? Yes, what parent doesn't? But the rules for us are very strict, no call in (we give a 5 to 7 min window in case she was on a ride) you stay with us for XX amount of time.

I would start with small things like having her/him run in the store to get milk, alone at the mall for a few hours, water parks, pools, smaller amusement parks, zoo...

Good Luck!

Lori

 

[Gradar1]

As a child, we weren't allowed to walk around alone, and unfortunately, there were no older cousins for me to walk around with! High school groups will often send out kids without adults, as long as there's a group of 3 or more--at 14, I spent several days in Disney with 3 of my friends, and we (in my opinion) were very well behaved. When we went back as a family in 2003, we did do a bit of splitting up, with the adults going off for a bit, and the cousins (age 6 to 18--me), went off alone, just so we could do rides that interested us more, and we could walk faster than our parents! But honestly, we had just as much fun with our families as we did without. I wouldn't have wanted to spend all day without our parents, simply because it's a family trip--we're not being a family if we're split in the parks all day!

 

[dislovr]

ok im 21 now and auctually planning and going on trips by myself to the world and never need a map. but ever since i was like 11 my parents would let me go off on my own. at that age usually i was with my brother and in the same park as they were. by the age of 13 if not earlier i was going off completely by myself not only in a particular park but hopping busses and venturing into different parks. we did not have cell phones at his time. some people probably think that way to much freedom but i guess havign already been there like 20 times by that age put my parents at ease. my cousins also were given the same amount of freedom when they would go too. my parents aren't bad parents neither is my aunt i guess we were just really smart kids and were able to handle ourselves

 

[Mariaºoº]

Yep, I let my kidlets go off on their own. We've been to Disney so many times they know how the transportation works so I've allowed them to hop from park to park. We set up a time and place to all meet and they have a blast. They still hang out with their parents for the majority of the time.

 

[NikkiLovesWDW!]

My sister and I were not allowed to go off on our own until we were 13 and 17. Only then, we were allowed to take one trip around the monorail resorts and right back to the Poly. Well, it just so happened that it started pouring rain and for some reason the monorail broke down!! We were stuck on it for about 45 mins. Finally, we got pulled into the TTC and had to run full speed in the rain back to the Poly. My mom is the biggiest worrier EVER so when we did not get back to the hotel until over an hour later, she was very upset (not mad at us, just worried that something horrible happened when we had to convince her to let us go). We weren't allowed on our own again for some time! But, like I said she's a worrier.

 

[Todd&Copper]

When my sis and I were preteens we were given freedom to roam together once we were in the parks. Mom and Dad would set a time for us to meet, and there was a 15 minute window for us to be late (if we were "stuck" on a ride - this was the early 90's, or pre-cell phone). We'd usually split off for two or three hours and meet up for meals or snacks. We didn't do this at Epcot b/c the attractions appealed to everyone, but at MK we did it all of the time.

 

[brentalex]

In April we let our DS who is 14 take the bus from the contemporary to MGM in order to meet up with a friend and his family. The other family was already in the park and he was to call them when he got in to the park. Granted he is 6 feet 5 inches tall so does look a bit older and no one is really going to mess with someone that size, so we felt very safe letting him go. Later when we met up with them, we let the kids, by then there were 3 14 year olds, and 2 11 year old kids, go off on their own. with plans to meet at a certain place and time. This was the first time we let them go off by themselves, was sort of a test. They were at the meeting place on time, waiting for us when we arrived. So we feel ok about letting him and his friends go off on their own.

 

[JRawkSteady]

Well, one example would be the young cheerleader groups...the teachers for those pre-teen cheerleaders let the kids go alone, and the only problems I've encountered are the particularly rude and sometimes sexual behavior of the kids. If you think they're mature enough, to be alone without making other guests uncomfortable, I would see no problem. I wouldn't worry about anything else though, honestly.

 

[Julylady]

We visited WDW in April 06 with two girls (ages 11 and 13) and two boys (both 16). We let them split from the adults once we arrived at the parks under the following conditions.

1. They were never under any circumstances to split up.

2. The only exceptions were bathroom breaks and even for that we had rules. The boys were to wait for the girls outside of the women's bathroom and the girls had to go in together. Girls then waited together for the boys. They thought we were being kind of strict about this...but to my knowledge they stuck to it!

3. They had a cell phone.

4. They had a 30 minute window to meet up with the rest of the group.

5. They could not leave the park we were in.

6. If they felt at all threatened they were told to find a Disney employee and explain what was happening. Also to call us on the phone.

These rules worked fine! We were most worried about the girls. We let the two 16 year old boys go off alone together several times.

They separated from us most often during parades. The adults all love the parades and fireworks shows. The kids would rather do rides. So we would stake out a spot, they would leave and then check back with us from time to time. There were also times when they were willing to wait 30 - 60 minutes for a ride where the adults were not. They waited in line alone and then waited for us at the exit of the ride. All worked well.

Donna

PS I agree that I would let my girls go off alone at WDW way before our local mall!

 

[grgich]

I may be one of those "worriers". I was thinking it might be ok to let a preteen group of kids go off by themselves as long as they had a cell phone, and the parents were in the same park etc.... UNTIL I read about the 12 year old boy who died on RockNRoller Coaster. As a mother, I don't think I could live with myself if my child got hurt in some way, and I wasn't there, or God forbid, got there after they died! I know, it's a little irrational, in that I allow my child to sleep over other friend's houses, but I won't let my child go on vacation with another family. When does a mother "let go"? I guess I'm really not ready for that just yet.... even if my kid may be.

 

[all4disneyworld]

We visited WDW in April 06 with two girls (ages 11 and 13) and two boys (both 16). We let them split from the adults once we arrived at the parks under the following conditions.

1. They were never under any circumstances to split up.

2. The only exceptions were bathroom breaks and even for that we had rules. The boys were to wait for the girls outside of the women's bathroom and the girls had to go in together. Girls then waited together for the boys. They thought we were being kind of strict about this...but to my knowledge they stuck to it!

3. They had a cell phone.

4. They had a 30 minute window to meet up with the rest of the group.

5. They could not leave the park we were in.

6. If they felt at all threatened they were told to find a Disney employee and explain what was happening. Also to call us on the phone.

These rules worked fine! We were most worried about the girls. We let the two 16 year old boys go off alone together several times.

They separated from us most often during parades. The adults all love the parades and fireworks shows. The kids would rather do rides. So we would stake out a spot, they would leave and then check back with us from time to time. There were also times when they were willing to wait 30 - 60 minutes for a ride where the adults were not. They waited in line alone and then waited for us at the exit of the ride. All worked well.

Donna

PS I agree that I would let my girls go off alone at WDW way before our local mall!

Good rules- I did think more mom's worried about girls than boys. We may try it at MK but, not sure about any other park. Both myeslf and Dh love to ride the rides with them. At home we let them go to the pool by themselves at 11 (has lifeguards and we are 5 houses away) and this year they are aloud to walk to the Walgreens which is less than a mile away, together with cell phones. But, I would not drop them off at the malls yet.
We do drop them off at the movies on Friday nights with about 15 of their other friends and ocasionally a parent. That's all I am prepared to do right now.
Thanks for all your opinions!

 

[all4disneyworld]

thank you everyone for all you replies!!!!