Got back from a visit to Virginia - skipped a week and tempted to let it go this week too. But this is part of the exercise to regain structure, routine...
So it was my first time traveling with both kids alone. Trip went better than expected. Boy is getting more independent each day. He insists on using the men's room rather than the ladies' (with me). I agree to let him wait outside the toilets, each time forgetting to check if he knows not to go with any strangers. I finally had that talk with him - what if a stranger asks to take him to his mom, gives him goodies, etc, to never go with. This morning on the radio, there was talk of a boy taken and murdered. He was 8? and for the first time allowed to walk home on his own, or something like that. Hubby often refers to his childhood of running around the neighborhood with other kids. This doesn't seem to happen in the US anymore. When does one allow the kids to venture out on their own? Heck, not so long ago, a driver under influence mowed down some kids on a neighborhood sidewalk! Hubby likes to quote statistics - that only so many kids get abducted and it should be generally safe to let kids out (we have yet to decide on the age). Yet it's tempting to never let them go, refuse to become a statistic. I know we cannot protect our kids from everything, but at times go into hyper-worry. Can't even watch programs with kid crimes anymore, real or fiction.
So how to deal with this as the kids age and want more independence? I suppose one breath at a time...
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