Why do parents let their 13-15 year old girls take Uber home from concerts at midnight?
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Anonymous
You don't get it. It's going to happen no matter how much you want to shelter her. The right thing to do is to teach her how to handle the situation and how to react. |
Anonymous
THIS. There is no way in hell I'm letting my under-18 y.o. kids use Uber. |
Anonymous
| Parents are too drunk |
Anonymous
 OMG... You kids take you to concerts, how bizarre.
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Anonymous
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NP here. Just want to say, predators go where the prey is, and especially where the prey is unprotected by another. This goes for lions looking at calves at the watering hole, and for human predators.
So by way of analogy, the lion does not choose just any calf. She chooses the lamb that is the easy mark, maybe away from its mother or mother and calf are a little away from the herd. Likewise, human predators find jobs where they will have access to prey, in particular, unrestricted or unmonitored access (e.g. teacher/coach/priest/camp counselor) They are not hanging out in the wilderness, they are in the watering holes of schools or the mall. (Unless the wilderness is the unmonitored bike trail where prey jogs along alone.) And yes, kids are more likely to be abused by someone they know, but hello, it's because someone they know is more likely to be given unrestricted, unmonitored access to the kid. I mean people, just think about it. Yes, everything can be construed as a danger to our kids, but some set-ups are more dangerous than others. Unmonitored access is the problematic set-up. Here in LA there have been girls/young women raped by Uber drivers and it has been underreported. Two LAPD officers told some parents/kids this in a drug awareness program a few months ago. There is a story about one of them in the local news now. I don't let my 14 y.o. DD uber, mostly because our lives are not set up so she has to uber places. But if she were to uber, it would not be alone. A gaggle of girls is safer than one alone. |
Anonymous
+1 Like another op just posted--there have been numerous sexual assaults in uber. You would put your child in a CAR alone with a stranger?? You people have zero common sense. We are careful with our 20-something babysitter just going a few miles at night. My husband goes out, checks the driver--tells her to text when she gets home, etc. I am 47 and I don't run/jog alone at night either or on wooded paths alone. My father taught me well. I was at the ER G-town when a victim was brought in who had been assaulted on wooded trail at 4pm on a Sunday. Pulled off the path. It was tragic. |
Anonymous
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My 15 year old son got an Uber account when he started high school. He's at TJ and we live a 1/2 an hour away, or more, during rush hour, and we don't work near the school. It's for emergency use only, but I don't want him to have something unplanned come up, have to stay after school, miss the bus, have school let out early for some reason, have an emergency and be unable to do the pickup myself, have a carpool fall through or whatever else, and have him end up stranded. Of course, he would use it in the afternoon or early evening. And he does not use it for rides home from after school sports when there is no busing, or for rides to and from social events, despite the hassle of driving him across the county and setting up carpools.
Also, DS is six feet tall, and looks like he could be 17 or 18. I don't love it, but it's better than having no backup plan. Fortunately, in the year he has had the account, he has never had to use it. None of his TJ friends use Uber regularly, despite the TJ transportation hassles. I don't think his base school friends even have accounts. DD is 13 and very petite. There is no way she would get an Uber account in MS. Once she starts HS, she will probably need to get an account if she is at TJ, for the same reasons as her brother. But it would make me very, very uncomfortable, and I would move heaven and Earth not to have her use it, or make her brother drop what he was doing and ride with her if possible. If she goes to her base school, I see no need for an Uber account at all-- at least for her first couple of years. After that, it probably will depend on if she has a car. I know it's sexist, but a petite teen girl taking Uber alone makes me much more nervous than a large teen boy. Then again, neither of my kids would be going to concerts alone at 14. DS has started going to Wolftrap, Kennedy Center type events with a group of friends. But a parent of a group member always goes with them and sits separately. DD either goes with a friend and her parents, or 2-3 parents decide to take the girls. |
Anonymous
This. It's more important to have a parent at the concert to chaperone than even on the drive home. As I know from experience when I was 15. |
Anonymous
No it's more important to teach them how to stay safe at a concert and respect their bodies and make good decisions ... otherwise you don't prevent her from banging a guy for beer you just prevent her from banging a guy for beer at that 1 specific concert. If you need to hawk over your kids at a concert she is probably banging the neighbor down the street. |
Anonymous
Sorry to be blunt, but do you know that sex trafficking rings have shopping lists of clients preferences and have teams of guys driving, scouting out for and fulfilling said shopping lists. Do you know that as smart as your kid is it will not do them any good during the first couple weeks in captivity in a dog cage. Once they broken they will be moved across the country. Then they will be sold on average 25 times a day. And it only takes about 10 second to take them. |
Anonymous
Wow, you sound crazy. |
Anonymous
I'm not the quoted PP but the response I bolded here is just naïve, to be blunt. "The right thing to do" is to ensure you never put your own child into a situation that is potentially stupidly dangerous just so you can prove to the world you're Not A Helicopter Parent. You can teach all the self-defense and "reactions" you want, but if a stranger has your kid already in a vehicle, how does the kid "react" once the doors are locked by the driver and the driver is speeding away with your kid? Try to grab the driver by the throat from the back seat? Try to get over the seat and take the wheel somehow? And crash in the attempt? No amount of self-defense classes or role-playing with mom or dad is going to prepare her for that situation. As for having the phone in your hand to call 911 just in case -- assuming the driver hasn't already threatened the kid and made her or him hand over the phone -- it's already too late. Yeah, do teach tweens and teens serious self-defense for life in general. I believe in that. But there is nothing wrong, and everything right, with teaching a kid to make smart choices and that includes the choice not to get into a car with a stranger. We tell our younger kids never, ever get in a car with a stranger, then tell tweens and teens it's fine because, hey, everyone uses Uber. They check their drivers out, right? I looked up their so-called background checks. It's a joke--Google it. And no, I wouldn't let my kid take a taxi alone either at this age. |
Anonymous
Not crazy at all it happens more than people know/want to know. |
Anonymous
Where did you come up with this garbage? The National Enquirer? |
Anonymous
Give one example of this happening. Provide city, date, link, etc. |