Kirstie Allsopp claims that a “malicious call” led to social services questioning her for allowing her 15-year-old son to go interrailing in Europe.
The TV presenter, 52, revealed at the weekend that a report was made to the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC), her local council, after she revealed that she allowed her teenage son to go on a trip abroad with a 16-year-old friend.
Allsopp told Times Radio on Monday that it was “a malicious call, made by someone who was obviously trying to upset me”.
She added: “Social services should have recognised that and dealt with it accordingly, malicious calls are actually an element with all social services.”
The presenter also said the fact that the council service had the time to call was “utterly bizarre”.
Allsopp explained that the reception to her post, where she revealed that Oscar, now 16, had gone on a European interrailing trip to celebrate his GCSEs, has been “extraordinary”.
‘Why are we infantilising children’
“That leaves me with a feeling of, do I regret the tweet? Yes, because it’s been a load of hassle’. Do I regret the tweet? No, because it’s very clear that this debate needs to be had because there is something really troubling going on with this extraordinary change in actually a very short amount of time,” she added.
“There’s generations of people who have travelled very freely all over the place, and now there’s this group of people, who are terrified and who are restricting their teenagers.”
She called the change in perceptions “deeply worrying, deeply worrying”.
Allsopp said: “Until 1972, 15 was the school leaving age, the majority of people left school at 15 and got a job. And what has changed? Why are we infantilising children?
“Why are we saying that they’re not capable of travel?”
She said that her son Oscar had saved money for the trip himself and “has never been in any kind of trouble or done anything irresponsible in his life”.
“We know that there are some kids who, at a certain age, are more mature and some who are less and obviously we should let parents decide that,” Allsopp said.
“It was, until very recently, absolutely standard for young people on any budget to explore and get as far as they possibly could. What has changed? Why has it changed?
“And this increase in adolescent mental health, which is a crisis, we talk about anxiety all the time. It’s like a buzzword, anxiety, anxiety.
“Anxiety leads to depression, confidence leads to happiness. Being trusted, being confident, makes you feel better about yourself and happy.
“So are our kids anxious because we are fearful, we are holding them back, and this is leading them to be depressed?”