I just heard a discussion about Abby a few days ago in the car....and did not hear all of it. The talk show host was asking people to call in and tell what they thought of a 16yo girl alone in a boat in the middle of the ocean and what they thought of her parents.
The radio host is a local guy....his comment was that he took his "tween" daughter camping for some "father-daughter bonding" time. They went fishing and she enjoyed that, but then would not eat the fish when he cooked it. He said she wanted him to order a pizza, and didn't understand they couldn't get pizza delivered to a state park campground. He said he didn't have to worry about
his daughter ever wanting to go off and do something like Abby is doing ....she'd be too far from a Domino's.
I didn't hear any call-in comments. But it made me wonder not only about Abby but her parents.
My two children would have never even considered sailing across one ocean alone, let alone around the world. One - they would be afraid, and two - neither would be willing to give up their creature comforts to do so. Actually, I'm not sure it would even occur to either to do so. The younger one was perfectly content to sail a couple of seas aboard a Navy carrier for a couple of years.
As a mother, though....I would not even consider allowing my child to go across one of the Great Lakes on their own....around the world..
I recognize that once they turned 18 there wouldn't be much I could do about it. However....prior to them becoming a "legal adult", there is no way on God's little green earth, that I would allow it. If they tried it after becoming legal....I would be renting a yacht with a helicopter on it, and be hovering over the child the entire way!!
What the hell was this mother thinking? or NOT thinking? How could she have possibly not thought that she could lose her child to any number of catastrophic occurrences?
