Not too long ago, I posted about the 13-year-old that climbed Mt. Everest. While the teen did accomplish his dream safely, there was still a lot of controversy around his age and whether or not his parents should have allowed it. Well, now the latest adventure seeker is a 16-year-old who goes out sailing only to find herself part of a rescue mission. There was a lot of noise about her parent’s trying to use the material for a reality show, but the show decided there was too much risk involved and if she did indeed die, there would possibly be liabilities.

I think that it’s great that families raise children in environments that give them something to occupy their time with, encourage passions and help them to dream. However, where is this line drawn and how much responsibility to these parent’s need to take?

With the first kid, I don’t think I had much of an opinion on it. However, with this second one, I think that it’s really pretty simple. If a child wants to risk their life doing something (and off the gate, you know it’s life risking), it should be made when they are on their own and they should at least legally be an adult. And if it’s not so risky, then why aren’t the parent’s right beside of them…if nothing else, just in case of an emergency.

Ultimately a parent is responsible for a child until they are legally an adult, and so it becomes more about the parent not guiding their children to make safe and healthy decisions than in helping their child achieve a goal or dream. There are plenty of risk takers, adrenaline junkies and people who want to be the first or break a world record, I get it. But I don’t get it when it comes to a kid who is possibly just trying to please their parent’s or make them proud in some way.

If more of these kids pop up, I think that there probably does need to be some type of regulation put into place concerning a child’s safety if the parent’s aren’t able to connect the dots on it. I mean at 16-years-old, you barely have your driving license, but you can get in a boat and sail off to possibly never return? Where’s the logic? If a child wants to risk their life doing something (and off the gate, you know it’s life risking), it should be made without the parent’s being liable. Ultimately a parent is responsible for a child’s safety until they are legally an adult, and safety is definitely a question in both of those situations.