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I was wondering how many parents drop their kids off at the mall. My daughter's 12 and 13 year old friends are dropped off to "hang out". The parents either leave the mall or go to the food court for awhile to wait. I am not comfortable doing this and feel like an overprotective parent, but I know that there are scary people lurking around these places. Plus, many of the kids that I see there are loud and obnoxious when there is no parent present. Thanks!
My sis and I used to do this but not until we were 14-15 years old. I wouldn't do it at that age. Better to be a bit overprotective and safe than not protective enough and something bad happen.
I wasn't allowed to hang out at the mall like my other friends and knowing what they did/pulled while at the mall and observing pre-teens today being mall-rats, I wouldn't let my kids hang out there either these days!
I used to work at our local mall. Please don't drop your daughter off and leave her. Those kids, even the "good" ones are just awful in the mall. And the pervs who are there not necessarily hitting on these kids, but definately speaking inappropriately to them is just disgusting. When we wanted a little independance at the mall, my mom would bring us and let us walk around and we would have to meet her back at a certain point at a certain time, but she never left the building and instilled the fear of God in us that we may not see her, but she would be watching us and we had better be on time. LOL. We didn't get free reign at the mall until I was old enough to drive us there myself. Your daughter might get mad, but stick to your gut and please don't leave her there.
My parents dropped us off at the mall. We didn't do anything, really. We weren't obnoxious. We were four girls, sometimes five, and we hung out together and kind of shunned everyone else. We sat down to eat at McDonald's and the worst thing we did was maybe laugh out loud. But the mall offers a lot of opportunities for teens and that is meeting guys or worse, pervs, and while we didn't pick the forbidden apple (i.e., socialize with strangers), who's to say another teen wouldn't be enticed or maybe get a better opportunity (more enticing) than we did? There was always some girl from our group, the free spirit (read: in other, more contemporary words, "skanky") who would meet boys at the mall and drag us around with her to introduce us to him. We never liked that and didn't go out with her as often as we went out with each other.
No way no how did I ever let my kids "hang out" at the mall. My 20+ hated that I would not let him hang out...
I don't think it is necessary.
Now with shootings, pedophiles and everything else going on it is not safe. If they want to hang out let them do it at someones home. Preferably under adult supervision.
I was wondering how many parents drop their kids off at the mall. My daughter's 12 and 13 year old friends are dropped off to "hang out". The parents either leave the mall or go to the food court for awhile to wait. I am not comfortable doing this and feel like an overprotective parent, but I know that there are scary people lurking around these places. Plus, many of the kids that I see there are loud and obnoxious when there is no parent present. Thanks!
I think that's a little too young to be by themselves IMO.
If kids are still loud and obnoxious in public then they are probably too young to be alone anyway.
I also have a 12 year old soon to be 13 in a few days. Her friends are allowed to do the same thing. I just got asked if she could go to the movies tonight w/ several friends. The movie theater is AT THE MALL (ours is an outdoor mall too). The parents just drop them off and pick them up hours later. They all have cell phones but my child does not. If she goes somewhere we think she needs one she can borrow one of ours and that is it. When I have taken them as a group to the mall I stayed there and never left. I made them check in w/ me every 30 minutes. But I took them to another mall that was an indoor mall. I felt safer that way because with the outdoor mall the cars are right there and someone could grab one of the girls into their car and be gone w/ them in no time. I just don't feel safe doing it and I know that one time while she spent the night w/ a friend that mom took them and dropped them off. She came home w/ a shirt that was totally inappropriate and we returned it. Right now her lack of judgement is keeping me from allowing her to do some of these things but also the fact that it is just not safe.
Oh, one Friday night about 10:30 we were on our way home from a hs football game and we got stopped at the light by the mall on the service road of the highway (which is not yet completed). The movie theater is closest to the road. Here came these 2 girls about 14 wearing little bitty short mini skirts crossing the street going down the embankment to the underpass of the highway under construction. It was pitch black down there and who knows what or who could be down there. They could have walked up on a group of guys and really been taken advantage of. I'm betting their parents dropped them off at the movies and they split to go to the underpass. I have friend that works for the local pd and I told her about it and she passed the word onto the cop that patrols that area. They knew about it and said yes that it was a hangout and not good either. I was glad my daughter was with me when we saw these girls and we talked about it. It is just some of these kids nowadays have been given WAY TOO MUCH free reign and their parents don't care and/or make excuses for them. So with all of that and seeing what goes on she knows better than to ask to go and be dropped off at the mall right now. I won't allow it.
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