>>>Try it before you buy it, but she didn't have the money to buy it. It was a heavy-handed response, but she was still wrong. Plus, 12 years old and out on her own? Is that normal?
>>>
>>>http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/news/article-1035897/Nailed-Security-guard-police-officers-interrogated-grammar-girl-painted-fingernail-Boots.html
>>
>>
>>I saw this. Quite often stores have testers and she may have thought it was ok.The response was ridiculous and a waste of police time . Whatever happened to store managers using their judgement.
>>
>>BTW I would say out on your own at 12 is (thank god) pretty normal
>
>Did you mean to write that? It is normal for a 12 year old to go into town and shop alone there? When I was 12 (back in 1972) the world was much different. Even then we went only in groups and I lived in a very small town of 8,000. Most kids in the town worked on farms so it was somewhat normal to see them out and about alone, but not in town or in stores.
>
>Today, a 12 year old is seldom out alone or going into downtown or a large store alone. I wouldn't have considered it when my daughter was 12.
>
>Do you know that it is estimated that there are over 100,000 teenagers in sex slavery here in this country who were abducted when out alone or with their friends?

Well I can only speak for people I know. And yes I would say its relatively normal.

I respect that you make the best judgement for you own children but I think sometimes the climate of fear we live in is just a way to sell newspapers. And where does that over 100,000 number come from. Over what period , how does it match up against past periods.

Also regarding you son comment. I have one of each and I worry more about my son than I ever did about my daughter. Statistically boys are much more likely to be attacked than girls. But I have to give him freedom to go out and act sensibly and not pass y fear on to him.