Máiría Cahill: Kirstie Allsopp allowing her son to travel alone at 15 is a parenting fail in my book

Kirstie Allsopp has come under a barrage of criticism over parenting decisions. Photo: Getty

“Boys don’t have to be as careful as girls,” my daughter Saorlaith said, when we discussed TV presenter Kirstie Allsopp’s son Oscar’s recent inter-railing trip around Europe.

I can’t be the only parent whose heart is still in my mouth at the thought of what could have happened to her 15-year-old (now 16) and his 16-year-old friend who travelled without an adult. Perhaps it is precisely because I am the mother of a teenage girl and not boys that I was horrified at Allsopp’s decision.