13yo's Freedoms: DH & I disagree: HELP!

[Bathsheba]

Thanks girls I agree: it's not her so much as other people! I walked through the area under the Flinders Street clocks last Saturday, by myself, and I actually felt quite intimidated. 1/4 of the people looked like junkies... lots of kids my DDs age who just looked out if it And I'm usually no shrinking violet! I've lived in some pretty rough areas in my life! I look past what people are wearing (I don't see the mo-hawk as much as I see the glazed expression in their eyes) and it was not a place I would want my 13yo to be essentially by herself.... ie if anything happened another 13yo isn't going to know what to do! The one thing my DD does have in her favour is that she isn't the kind of kid a predator would target... she has self confidence and assertive body language and she's physically very strong. BUT I'm still not happy about the whole thing. I just don't GET how the other parents seem to be ok with it all. My DH is going to ring them too BTW (other parents). The two boys go to Little Athletics and so he kinda knows them, they are good boys, sensible etc.

It's so ironic... here I am, the only parent that allowed my DD to walk to school every morning in grades 5/6 and now all of a sudden i am the "only" parent who won't let my DD go into the city un-chaperoned

Trillian: There's a shopping centre near us (Northland) that is actually worse than the CBD. It's shocking... I'd rather she go into the city. I just don't get why I can't loosely follow her... it was implied that that would be "embarrassing".... geeze, now I am the uncool mum.

ETA: We allow her to catch the train into the city by herself to meet DH at his work... infact last week she went in and did half a days work with him (they are moving offices and needed help packing files into boxes). But that was a direct trip with someone waiting at the other end.... i just don't like the idea of hours passing and no one any the wiser if anything went wrong.