I picked up a book at the library written by a mom about Free Range Parenting. She had written an article in the New York Sun about letting her 8 year old ride the subway by himself. I figured the book was good for some laughs.
I think of my parenting style as strict with boundaries yet I can let go too. I want my boys to be able to enjoy their childhood and I want to enjoy it too. I do admit to sheltering at times since that's the way I grew up, but I'm learning to let go.
Today we went to our local water park and I let David and his friend go off by themselves. We set times to meet at our chairs but they were free to whatever they wanted, as long as they stayed in the water park. It was good for David and for me to be able to let go. And David's brain was back too!
3 comments:
I've been wanting to get my hands on a copy of that book, but our library doesn't have it yet. I might just have to break down and buy it.
It's alwasy good when they have found their brains......now if I could only find mine!
This reminded me of that chapter in Jung Chang's book "Wild Swans," where she describes traveling from Sichuan Province to Beijing on the train with three of her friends during the Cultural Revolution. Um... they were, like, 14.
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