Americans make excellent targets. They are typically naïve and trusting people who rarely consider the dangers of being free and easy on vacation. Young Americans who have just graduated from high school believe that the world is their oyster and nothing can happen to them. Surely we, as parents are not so old as to forget the days when we believed we were ten feet tall and bulletproof!
It won’t be easy explaining to your newly graduated child that they aren’t indestructible, but it is necessary. Young adults who set off with stars in their eyes simply cannot see the dangers ahead and although you thought your job as a parent would be done when they graduated and left home, you still have more to do. If you treat your child as the adult they want to be and explain the dangers of travel abroad, you will have at least equipped them with the knowledge they’ll need to avoid danger when possible, keep themselves and their friends safe and hopefully avoid tragedy.