Where is my child?

[tdimdad]

It staggers me that anyone would send their child or children unaccompanied from Australia to Europe and I was unaware any airline would allow a lone child to travel ~ 24 hours on a plane plus a connection.

After the kids had done the trip with their parents enough times, and there are three siblings, they collectively knew what to expect and how to behave (on average). They quite liked the travel apart from the few hours in a boring office room.
My junior does now domestic interstate every now and then on his own. Doesn't particularly like it but accepts it and when sending him off I wait at the gate until the boarding is completed to confirm he's in and going. At his age, I would have done the trip on my own door-to-door, not just gate-to-gate, and I don't see anything odd in him doing one segment of the journey by himself. Sorry to stagger you with this all, and I'm OK with others thinking we're not right with this.

 

[clipped_wings]

At his age, I would have done the trip on my own door-to-door, not just gate-to-gate, and I don't see anything odd in him doing one segment of the journey by himself. Sorry to stagger you with this all, and I'm OK with others thinking we're not right with this.

I'm with you - I can recall our annual camping holiday at a familiar spot when we 4 kids were all under 10. We would have breakfast and run off for the day. We never saw our parents until dinner. Yet I pick up my 15 year old son from the school bus stop nearly every afternoon - go figure. It's more a poignant gesture to always remember Daniel Morcombe and never be complacent about my kids' whereabouts. But I hate that I have become a cotton wool parent.

Mr Clipped and I took off to Melbourne for the day last month and left them to their own devices, so I am getting better.

And FWIW - I would have had those VA boxes emptied and folded together for a 2 storey Fort, complete with drawbridge and windows........

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Bit late for my comments on here:
But VA had to make do with what they could.
The kids were in the most secure place possible, in the circumstances.
Not every tom, dick or harry could get into domestic secured zone, as security would have closed for the night at MEL T3, so no one could have gotten in after last flight had departed.
Not sure/most likely, VA staff would not have a working with childrens cert, so they would not have been able to be in the same room as the kids for the lenght of the night, so it (the VA the Lounge) would have been the most appropriate spot.
If the/a VA staff had taken the kids home, with them, it would have been blown up into a big huge explosion.
Not the ideal, but I see VA had to make do with what they had access to, having the kids in a place, no one else could get to easily, and there would have been video surveillance in the secure zone, so if the kids had gone out wandering, there would have been video evidence of them doing so.
Will turn my Waffly off now.