Would you let your teen goto the mall alone for an hour? At what age?

[Anonymous]

Yes I would, probably at 12 or 13 with a friend. 14 would be ok for an hour or two

[Anonymous]

My daughter - 13 - and her friends have been going to the mall together since they were about 12. I don't see the problem.

[Anonymous]

Alone? 12 or so. With a group of friends - around 4th grade, but about an hour would be about my limit, and with one or more parents nearby.

[Anonymous]

My DD started going with friends and no adult at 12. At 14 alone is fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'd be okay with my 13 year old visiting a particular store or the food court while I was doing something else at the mall. I don't know how I'd feel about dropping him off and driving away. Maybe I'd do that at age 15-16 for an hour or so. I think the biggest problem is that unchaperoned teenagers are not welcome at the malls anymore. Store clerks and security do not want to supervise them.

I think some of you guys are seriously overprotective! 16 for an hour? They can have a job at 16. What do you think is going to happen at the mall, for goodness’ sake! They know not to leave with a stranger, right? Supervised? What supervision is necessary?!

[Anonymous]

The problem is that there's not much to do at the malls anymore. What's a kid going to do, shop for women's shoes? Buy a $250 pair of ripped up jeans? There might be an arcade but they seem to be full of younger kids, not teenagers, who have better games at home. All that's left is the food court and a lot of malls discourage or even ban teenagers from gathering, especially if they're prone to being loud or rowdy.

Also, there's also the memory of what I know kids did at the mall when I was a teenager back in the '80s. They bought drugs and shoplifted. I'm not trying to overgeneralize. Things are different now. Or are they?

[Anonymous]

I just gave two 10-year-olds $20 and send them down a small little downtown street with a lot of stores, they were supposed to find the toy store and buy a new board game. They did that and came back to the place where I was having a quick dinner. So this mall situation sounds completely fine to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Alone - 16

With friends - 12/13

Sounds about right

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:14, fine, 11, no - not fair to expect store staff to babysit your kid.

That's silly. 11-year-olds don't need babysitting.

-person who started going to the mall by herself when she was 11 and in 7th grade, and everybody else did too

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd be okay with my 13 year old visiting a particular store or the food court while I was doing something else at the mall. I don't know how I'd feel about dropping him off and driving away. Maybe I'd do that at age 15-16 for an hour or so. I think the biggest problem is that unchaperoned teenagers are not welcome at the malls anymore. Store clerks and security do not want to supervise them.

I think some of you guys are seriously overprotective! 16 for an hour? They can have a job at 16. What do you think is going to happen at the mall, for goodness’ sake! They know not to leave with a stranger, right? Supervised? What supervision is necessary?!

Agree. I wonder if that was written by a parent of a single-digit age child. My 15 yr old takes mass transit all over the city by herself. Yesterday after school she stopped off at Brandy Melville and bought herself a sweatshirt with a gift card she'd been holding onto for three months. At 16 some kids go off to college. Watching people IS the job of security people.

[Anonymous]

FFS. At age 15 I had a JOB at a mall.

Unclench, lady.

[Anonymous]

Is it a bunch of moms of toddlers posting here?

14 is fine to spend an hour at an upscale mall, especially with a cell phone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FFS. At age 15 I had a JOB at a mall.

Unclench, lady.

Haha

[Anonymous]

Sure - 12/13. My kids started going to movies on their own at 13 going to the food court, the Apple store etc. I dropped off and picked up. My very mature 12 year old daughter I allow to shop, get ice cream etc at 12 on her own with a friend.,

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FFS. At age 15 I had a JOB at a mall.

Unclench, lady.

Haha

Me too and I took the city bus to get their got home at ten ish and had to walk a mile to my house - it was good for me!