re: Sending kids alone on airplanes, is it bad parenting?

I never did it and can't imagine doing it, but it never struck me as a big deal if you trust the airline folks to watch after your kids. The last time I went to the airport to pick up the missus, there was a mom there to pick up her kid on a flight that arrived 15 minutes early, and she was raising hell at the TSA people that they had allowed the flight to come in w/o her there. Or something. And then it hit me what kind of parents do this.