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At 18, my kids were in college, living thousands of miles from home.
If you can't trust your HS senior to go to a 3 hour concert alone, how are they supposed to go off to school?! |
| My DD's first concert was Taylor Swift at the Nat's stadium...pretty tame. She was a rising HS freshman. Went with 4 friends and parents dropped off/picked up. Depends on the kid I guess, but I think in general high school freshmen can handle it. |
| 14-15. |
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The security and safety at the Verizon Center during a concert is pretty great in my experiences, so I let her go to them at 14 with friends. No riding the Metro at night at that age, though, so I picked them up afterwards.
Some of the smaller "club" type venues aren't as secure, so for those it was 16. I'm so glad she passed through her YouTube & Vine stars phase very quickly. I was only subjected to attending two of those godawful events. |
I am guessing that she will be one of those kids that live in parent's basement as an adult. |
Maybe not that, but she'll definitely be one who needs her mom to email her college professors for her and/or accompany her to her first job interview. I'm a hiring manager and I've lost count of how many new college graduates bring their moms to their interviews. |
They need to learn to stick together and not to let their guard down. Remember the young Virginia Tech student who was abducted and killed outside of a concert in Charlottesville, VA. She had gone outside of the arena for some reason and they wouldn't let her back in (not sure why, maybe she didn't have a ticket stub with her?). She wound up getting into a car with Jesse Matthews (presumably to get a ride home) and was never seen alive again. Be careful. |
Cut the pp some slack. A lot really does depend on the concert. With Taylor Swift you would expect mostly a bunch of tween/teen girls, some with their mothers so a fairly mild crowd. With heavy metal you would expect a less tame group of attendees. One you might send your own 14 year old daughter to with a group of friends. The other you probably would not. |
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I let my 14 year old go to club shows and wait outside. She can only go with a friend and they are not allowed to separate. I was very blunt about how guys can grab at them in a crowd, and what to do if it happened. I told them they needed to buy and drink bottled water only and keep it in their hand the whole time to avoid being drugged.
I will probably let her go to a big venue in the next year or so. Those are harder to navigate, and she would never stop and ask for directions. |
So yes that care was awful. But the chances of this happening are VERY VERY VERY VERY small. There is a higher chance of you and your kid dying in a car accident on the way to the concert than of them being abducted. |
| When I was 16 my friend and I were living in Manhattan and due to see a concert. We took the subway to the venue, sold our tickets to the first tout we encountered and then went to a nightclub instead. It was excellent. |
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No clubs where when I was growing up, but at 14-15 I would get money from parents, get dropped off at a skating rink/bowling alley/movie, buy pot and acid and hang out with 18 year old boys that trolled the area.
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| I went to my first concert alone at around 16, I believe. I'm 24 now and have been to probably close to 100 concerts of many music genres. The one thing I will say is to have him/her get an actual seat, not standing area/general admission. GA is where the trampling, shoving, and drunks are. I had a major panic attack in GA once from everyone being so close to me and pushing. Now when I go to a concert where I can only get a GA ticket, I make a point to stand at the very, very back. Your child will be worlds more comfortable and safe up in the stadium area where she can have her own chair. |
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16 is appropriate to go without adults.
14-15 go with at least one adult chaperone, but can maybe sit away from adult. birth-13 must have adult present and stay with adult. |
| My 17 yr. old asked to go to a Chance the Rapper concert in Baltimore with a friend. We said no. |