Summer plans

[NewParent.com]

What is everyone doing now that school is out? Any big plans?

[Sandra Stehly]

My two older children (boys, 15 and 11), are "free range", so they generally take off in the morning and come back by curfew (midnight in our city) just about every day... my two younger ones (girls, 1 and 4) get to hang out with mama. We're planning a big trip out east in April of next year, so no big trip vacation plans this summer. A day at the amusement park, a Sunday drive to Amish country, things like that... otherwise, lazy summer days in the sprinkler and at the playparks for us!

[NewParent.com]

That sounds fun! Summer is SUCH a fun time for kids. I wish we ALL had 3 months off to play in the sprinklers and run around the town. Ahhh, to be young again! Question: Are your boys pretty well-behaved with all that free time? That seems like a lot of time for them to get into mischief! haha.

[Sandra Stehly]

The police have never brought them home, so I figure they're doing something right! :)

We've always raised them with quite a bit of freedom - playing outside alone by 2, walking down the street by 4, walking to school alone by 5, so they've grown up with the experience, maturity, responsibility, and knowledge of how to be safely independent. My girls are being raised exactly the same way. I feel fantastic knowing I'm arming them with the confidence and intelligence to be children, just as I was in the 70's.

Yes, they keep busy. We live in a medium-sized city (a suburb of the capital of the state), so they have quite a few miles to stretch their legs in. They're able to walk or ride their bikes anywhere their legs and bikes can take them, they have refillable gift cards to places like Subway and McDonalds to stop and eat, and we have several parks and other places for recreation around here. There are lakes and other natural sites for them to hang out at as well.

I don't ask what they've done unless they give me a reason to. As long as they're not getting in trouble with the law, vandalizing anything, or annoying another parent, then all is well. LOL!

[NewParent.com]

I think this is great! That freedom to be a child and explore is a wonderful thing to have. I myself was raised by extremely over-protective parents, so my parents knew where I was 24/7 and I was on a short leash. I was also an only child, which might have something to do with it. I'm always curious about the ways of other parents in terms of protectiveness, etc.

[Sandra Stehly]

I personally think it's a huge disservice to children when they're hovered over. I realize there are different factors in every decision to let a child roam, and different areas of the city or state have different dangers involved, but a lot of parents state the whole "they may get abducted" excuse, which leads to the string of other exaggerations that I wish would stop.

People tend to blur the lines between CSI and real life. Most people can count on one or two fingers the number of real abductions, not involving a relative/friend of the family, not involving a teenager running to someone they met online, that have occurred in the past few years. They just don't happen. I think I read once that I would have to leave my child in the front yard for 200,000 years for them to actually be taken by a stranger! LOL! I also read that 1 in 4 children/teens will become depressed - how much of that is caused by unwarranted fearmongering by first, the media, then perpetuated by parents? "Oh, I can't let Sally play in our safe fenced backard, she may get hurt!" (As if you sitting on the patio in a chair can prevent her from tripping over the hose 20 feet away!)

A great stat that shows the cyle of fear is the "licking the beaters" stat. Most parents scream that their children cannot possibly lick the beaters after making cookie or cake batter, because the raw eggs will make them sick. Do you know there's a 1 in 50 million (yes, 50 MILLION!) chance of getting sick from raw beaters? There's a 1 in 600 chance of injury just walking across the kitchen floor! I think the beaters is a rite of passage for children, and a risk I'm willing to take. Make sense?

I've rambled now... you got me on a roll. LOL!