Should Parents Let Kids Travel With Other Families?

Dec. 27, 2007 — -- A free ride on a private jet, a visit to a foreign country, and a stay at a top-class resort are luxuries many may find hard to pass up.

Such an experience might be even harder to refuse when it is offered to your less-traveled children, who are oftentimes eager to vacation with their friends or friends' families.

But what began as an adventurous winter vacation for 12-year-old Francesca Lewis and the family she was traveling with — her friend Talia Klein, 13, and her father, Michael Klein, 37, — ended in tragedy, when the private jet carrying the trio crashed Sunday in Panama.

Both of the Kleins, as well as the plane's pilot, 23-year-old Edwin Tasso, were killed, and Lewis, the only survivor, suffered a broken arm and hypothermia, according to The Associated Press.

Klein had taken the two girls on vacation to an eco-resort he owned in Panama, and the three were scheduled to return home to Santa Barbara, Calif., earlier this week. Their plane crashed on its way to the Chiriqui volcano, where witnesses recounted seeing the plane flying low and struggling with bad weather.

Attractive as vacation offers may seem to children, parents should weigh the risks when deciding whether to allow their children to travel alone or with other families — especially on more adventurous trips — parenting experts told ABCNEWS.com, and there are many things parents can do to try to keep their children as safe as possible.

"One of the toughest parts of being a parent is balancing how careful and cautious to be, while still making sure your child isn't too scared to taste life," said Pepper Schwartz, a sociologist and parenting expert. "Letting someone out in the world is a risk, but a school trip could have something like the [Panama crash] happen."

While many of the risks inherent in different life experiences, like traveling, are unavoidable, parents can still safeguard against foreseeable dangers by meeting with the parents who are taking their children on vacation, and making sure they understand what your children are and are not allowed to do.