News and Politics Forum

A lot of that depends on the circumstances.  If one lives in an urban setting, where gangs, drugs, shootings, molesting, and muggings are frequent enough to give cause for concern, then I guess that parents ought to either supervise their children's every move or physically change addresses so that this isn't a problem.

My own kiddos had freedom enough to just let their mom or I know where they were going to be, what they planned on doing, and when they would return.  That was mostly from age 12 onward.  Before that, they had to be with someone else who was old enough to supervise (like big brother/little brother stuff).  My kids also had the right to take out certain firearms that we owned, ride into town on their bikes. (they actually each had off-road dirt bikes by age 8) and other things similar.  We RAISED them to take care of themselves, and they knew exactly what to do.

Were there some mishaps and mistakes?  Yup.  Couple of broken bones, a couple times when some discipline was applied to the seat of all knowledge, etc., but for the most part, they did wonderfully -- and better than the kiddos that NEVER had the chance to make their own decision until they left the nest (and wow!  what a party they threw then -- some have yet to recover!).

My two sons are now both grown and out on their own.  One (27) is married, owns his own home, owns his own business (an off-road Jeep shop), and has a son of his own.  The younger (23) is in a rental home, works in a decent job, and is pursuing a marry-able woman with a vengeance.

The interesting part of my own kiddo's upbringing, was that we started life in rural Wisconsin, where you never had to lock ANYTHING.  We knew all the neighbors, and they knew us.  Anything bad happening had the eyes of the neighborhood open and lots of gun-toting folks would simply take care of whatever business needed taking care of.  But in mid-stream, we moved to urban Louisville.  The oldest was 16, the youngest 12.  The oldest, having his driver's license only 2 weeks at the time, drove one of our vehicles to Louisville when we made the move.  He did fine...  He also drove back to Wisconsin with his younger brother multiple times -- alone.  The city never did rub off on the kids, because they had a great start.

My kids are also 9 and 11.  They have both been taking public transportation, alone since they were in Kindergarten.  When they go outside to play, if they are going outside the neighborhood, we make them take a two way radio, just in case one of them gets hurt, or a bear or cougar comes along.  My wife is away right now with the kids, and her parents and friends think we give our boys too much freedom.  I think that kids need to have the trust of their parents that they can take care of themselves and that they will do the things that we have taught them, like stay away from strangers.