In 2011, I read a book that changed my approach to parenting.
Free-Range Kids by Lenore Skenazy is about giving kids the opportunity to develop self-reliance, confidence, and independence, which only happens when we let them out of our sight. Removing all risk from our kids? lives might seem like a good thing, but in doing so we also remove their ability to problem solve and discover the world.
My husband and I went all in on the free-range parenting philosophy. I looked for ways to develop confidence and independence in our two young kids, ages 6 and 3, pushing aside my fears and instinct to keep them close at all times.
My daughter started walking home from school by herself in early 2012, halfway through grade one. The journey was less than a kilometre, but at the time, we were on the free-range parent vanguard. As far as I could tell, my daughter was the only elementary school-age kid in the neighborhood walking home on her own. I found out later this decision caused concern among other parents, and every now and then a worried mother would offer my daughter a ride. My daughter, however, loved the freedom. She could make her way home at a leisurely pace, stopping to pet a dog or swing on the tire swing at the halfway point. In 2013 my son started kindergarten, and after a few months my daughter began walking him home.
I did worry about them, and was always relieved to see them come through the door every afternoon, but I often comforted myself with a statistic I?d memor...