So, last night I had a "Free Range Kid Moment". Jim was planning on taking the boys to a family friend's house for a camp fire. Evan asked if he could ride his bike. The friend lives about a mile away. 90% of that mile is a medium busy street (though partway down it does have a sidewalk). For a brief second I was about to say no. Then my Free Range Parenting skills kicked in and I said he could do it. He is ten. When I was ten I rode all over town on my bike with no helmet and the only expectation was that I'd be home when the street lights came on! So, with his helmet on, I sent him on his way. I also told him that he had to call me when he got there, to which Jim asked, "should we send the cell with him?" I told Jim that Evan wouldn't need the cell. He could use the house phone at the friend's house just like we did! :)
I encourage you to read the blog Free Range Kids and think about how you can loosen the apron strings a little and let your kids have some freedom today!
3 comments:
at the risk of appearing to be a stalker, I will be the first commenter because I saw your new post up since your blog suddenly popped from the *bottom* of my sidebar to the *top*!!
Yay for you! I smiled over so many things in this post...including that your kiddos are wearing helmets, and also that I practiced my free-range parenting skills last night by letting my 15 year old go to a high school football game with a GIRL!
And what a great time we had when he got home and hung out with his dad and me for over an hour while we heard about how he *held her hand*! Wow...way TMI, but I feel safe, because who that could possibly make him feel exposed will follow from my blog to your blog to my comment? Right? (Hi, Pam!)
Great, Tara! I'm glad you're letting him do that. When Everett wasn't much older, he was riding his bike all over our county. One day he and I took a car ride to see how far he had gone, and I had no idea he had been that far from the house. It's a miracle he survived, as well as us! But we did, and Evan will, too.
It ought to be pointed out that Scam doesn't have a "house phone"... Evan called us on Scam's cell. LOL.
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