Submitted by Robert, May 19, 2008 02:21

Starting when I was around 10 my parents let me walk and bicycle around my city (Palo Alto, CA) very much at will; by the time I was 12, I was taking county and regional buses to San Jose, San Fran, and other places in between. It was a great thing--I learned how to plan, how to strategize, how to interact, and how to experience places that, for me, were different. Now as an adult, I have a longstanding ability to travel all over town and all over the globe with a zest for adventure, challenge, and experience that I would never have developed otherwise. Kudos to you for giving your son the gift of self-reliance.

By the way, I understand many people would take you to task for leaving your child on his own. I wonder how many of these people have let their elderly--and, in many cases, vulnerable--relatives to walk or drive on their own? Or how many have let handicapped relatives--arguably some of the most vulnerable people--fend for themselves out in the big, bad world? The truth is, all of the people we feel need "protecting" also need to develop a sense of independence and self-reliance. That sense develops in different ways for each person, particularly with children: I know that many nine-year-olds are much more capable of surviving an afternoon on the streets than some nineteen-year-olds are. Just as we often allow the elderly and the handicapped the ability to rough it on their own, we need to realize that some children are sufficiently mature enough to handle tasks that we've been led to believe are impossible or inappropriate. Remember: children are people, not possessions. True, there's always a chance that something bad can happen to them if they're on their own, but if we hold them too tight, we may wind up breaking them ourselves.

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