Earlier this year, my 13 year-old son and I visited a few former Soviet republics for a couple of weeks. Toward the end of the trip, we were in Kazbegi, Georgia, a mountain town near the Russian border. He and I were finishing up an 8-hr plus hike to a glacier and back when I started getting violently ill (maybe the glacier water wasn't as pure as I was told...). We made it back to the hotel where I was losing it from both ends for hours, so I called my wife at home and asked her to change our flights so we could get back to the States asap. The earliest flight back wasn't for like 36 hours, so we had to spend one more day in Kazbegi before taking a van to Tbilisi airport. I was basically immobile, and didn't want my son to have to spend the last day of his vacation stuck in a hotel with his puking dad. So around noon, I gave him some Georgian money, made sure his mobile phone was receiving texts, and sent him out in to town to get lunch, wander around, practice his Russian, etc. I told him to be back in by 4 pm and answer his phone if I text/call. He walked back into the room at 3:45 happy as a clam.
When people ask him about the best part of our trip, he gets really excited talking about his 4 hours of freedom in Georgia, ordering khinkali and tea at a small restaurant and bargaining for souvenirs at the flea market. I think back to what I was allowed to do (or even expected to do) at his age, and how much safer Europe is than the U.S., etc., and never really questioned the decision. Not saying allowing a 13-year old boy to wander around a foreign country for 4 hours is the same as allowing a 17-year old to be gone for a few weeks, but I'm just kind of surprised by the largely negative responses, especially since they seem to be about safety and not money.