Thank you for your responses moms.

Oh my gosh, I really don’t envy your position. I have quite a while to go yet before i’m faced with this decision but I will have trouble letting go too! My parents were really easy going with us when we were kids (20+ years ago now) but things were so so different back then. Sorry I don’t have any advice but what you’re feeling is totally normal x

It depends on the maturity of the child. I used to drop the kids to the local cinemas and then pick them up. Everywhere they went was local and usually they go in a group and we all had a specific time to be picked up etc , and only day outings .

i think that it really depends on the maturity level of your own child (will she say no to peer pressure?) the personalities of her friends (well mannered or behaved or not) and where they are going and for how long. A shopping centre for a few hours is not bad, a cinema is fine but if they wanted to just go roaming around town pointlessly, i would really be concerned about what they get up to. You have to be able to trust that you have brought your child up to behave the right way and you can’t smother then as they will rebel and go behind your back. Maybe the simple answer is when you can trust your child to do the right thing

The tighter you hold the harder they fight to get away! Try to control the time length, so 3 hours, building up based on trust.
But without freaking you out- those ice ads aren’t for everyone else’s kids! If my kids were that age now, I would discuss with them what plan together you want to put in place to help protect them I.e. Drug tests