Free Ranging It

I am a free range parent wanna be.  I love all of the ideas of letting my kids grow up the way I did, back in the innocent 70's, but they still seem too young to give any real freedom to.  In our great-grandparents day they would have already been a paid employee at the shoe factory or in charge of milking Bessie every morning at 5:00.  I try though.  Especially in those times when you can make them feel like they have freedom when in reality it is just a tiny bit.

Here is a picture of Jac walking home from our neighbors after a lunch playdate.  Our yards connect although they are several houses down, I can see their back porch from my backyard.  For Jac though, there is one yard that he goes through that he wouldn't really see me yet and probably with his back turned wouldn't see my neighbor watching him either! 

He asked if he could walk home by himself.  Of course this wasn't his idea or my idea, this was my neighbors idea after she had already let her daughter walk home from our house by herself.  It makes sense that he would then want to try it and for my guy who really doesn't like to be alone, I was proud of him!  The biggest risk was that he would run out of steam and not make it up the hill (I have been known to carry him on the way home before, playdates are a lot of work!)  This was such a momentous occasion that I had to get the camera out (you can laugh at that, it's okay). 

So here's to my sort of free range kid.  I can see an independent little guy just around the corner.