9 year old signing in and out of club?

[Naomi John]

This is a choice left up to you. What other's have done, or believe does not matter.

 

I do not think anyone would ever let their child "roam" on a moving city by themselves. (Ok, that was as overt statement, because, as we all know, some do, and that is the parents choice).

 

Anyway, something I learned in Girl Scouts that always stuck was the buddy system. I use it as a quasy adult all the time.:D

[dijid]

We originally didn't allow our DD sign out priveledges at 9 on Carnival. Then we found out she wouldn't be allowed to do some of the activities and we changed. We talked to DD and she agreed to only use it for the activities. She always waited for us to pick her up and there wasn't any problem. The scavenger hunt was her absolute favorite activity and she loved going to the nighttime show with her group (because they got reserved seating that was better than she got sitting with Mom & Dad!)

 

One of the things we do in our house to determine readiness is playing what we call the "What if?" game. DH and I sit down with the child and throw out lots of different scenarios for a given situation. The child must be able to answer "correctly" without hesitation. We did it when our oldest wanted to ride her bike by herself down the street to a friend's house at a young age. She failed. Same child many years later passed with flying colors for staying home alone while we ran an errand she didn't want to go on.

 

And at 11, I find it ironic that DD has what amounts to sign-in/out priveledges at school (they don't do substitutes where we live and if a teacher isn't there, she can leave) but NCL deems her too young to do it on the ship. While DD doesn't roam the city per se, she does go to/from school on her own and goes to the bakery and grocery store on our street by herself.

[CruiserNic]

Could someone tell me about this "Treasure Hunt" that is being referred to?? Is it a Carnival thing or a common thing on most ships?? We are taking our kids on RCCL for their first cruise and they will be 8 & 10 at the time we sail.

[Nebr.cruiser]

Most ships have some kind of scavanger hunt. Although I haven't done this, it was explained to me that if you don't want them to miss the scavanger hunt and yet didn't want them to have sign-out privileges, you could give them sign-out privileges just for that day and later rescind it.

 

Or, possibly, you could go up and sign her out, let her go on the hunt, and sign her back in again.

 

We just got back from a cruise with kids; they didn't have the scavanger hunt, they said because of not enough kids. They told us there were 180 kids on board, with 80 of them being in the teen (12 & up group). There were never all that many kids in the club.

[cenlo]

To suggest that a parent should care that it would 'embarrass' a 9 year old to have the parent sign him out is bizzare to me.

 

You'd rather have your young child roam the ship alone, than risk embarrasing them? Do you let you 9 year old roam around town by themselves, go alone to the mall by themselves? I certainly would not let my child just wander around our hotel looking for me, nor would I let them do so on a cruise ship. Do you personally know all 3600 + people on board and know that they have your childs best interest at heart? I certainly don't.

 

Personally, I don't believe that any child under 12 should be allowed to sign themselves out, and even at that age I would not feel comfortable having my child alone anywhere onboard.

 

I for one plan on 'embarrassing' my 8 year old every single night when I pick her up from kids camp, and then I will embarrass her furhter by making her walk back to our room with me where I will tuck her in for the evening.

 

I totally agree. The camp are great and the kids love it. My 8yr old didn't want to leave. But I got a hug and kiss when I dropped her off and picked her up..............I don't think she was embarrased?

[IttaBit]

Maybe I'm overprotective but my oldest will be 12 when we sail the Oasis and my husband and I decided not to let her have free reign of the ship. Knowing my child, I don't think she's mature enough to be let loose on a ship with 5000 strangers.