Imagine letting your 8 year-old child walk around the block by themselves and when they got home safely, you gott a visit from the cops questioning your parenting decision. Seems farfetched? Maybe not? A mother in Illinois, Corey Widen, says that the cops and the Department of Family and Child Services (DFCS) were called when she let her daughter walk the family dog around the block. The police didn’t file any charges and after a two week investigation, the DFCS closed the case.
So, this situation has become a hot topic. There’s a divided camp on parental supervision – the free range parenting, where you let kids explore and learn with minimal supervision and helicopter parenting, where you closely monitor their actions and activities.
How do you, as a parent, make a decision on when you let your own kids do things alone? Whether it’s ride their bike to a friend’s house in the neighborhood or stay at home by themselves?
Aside from following the law, here are 3 things to consider:
1) Problem Solving Ability: Can you kids think quickly on their feet? For example, let’s say that the electricity goes out at home. Will they open blinds to let natural sunlight in? Or, get the flashlights.
2) Emotional Maturity: how do they handle stress? Do they freak out easily or do they remain relatively calm when things don’t turn out the way they expect.
3) Responsibility: do they follow your instructions well? This is an important consideration because if they don’t follow what you say then they can potentially find themselves in delicate situations. For example, they talk to everyone they meet instead of looking at them with a slight nod of recognition.
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