I don't generally think of myself as a "helicopter mom" (one who hovers over her children 24/7), but I am protective of my girls, so others might think of me as one. Yes, I make them sit in the back seat and buckle up. Yes, I make them wear helmets when riding their bikes or scooters. No, I won't yet let them cross the street without supervision. Hey, just the fact that I have chosen to homeschool my kids might make some people think I am overprotective. When we go to the park, I don't hover over them, but I do try to keep a watchful eye. I can't yet imagine allowing them to go to the park by themselves. I walked about 7 blocks to school everyday when I was H's age, but I can't imagine letting her walk to school alone right now. We live in a different world than when I was growing up. Though there surely were "scary" people back then, it seems like there are more now, or maybe we are just more aware (or I'm just paranoid!).
There is a little girl who lives down the block and across the street from us. She is G's age, 5 years old. We had noticed her riding her bike up and down the sidewalk on her side of the street, and she would occasionally stop right across the street from our house and watch our girls play in our front yard. "Mommy, there's a little girl over there! Can she come and play with us?" We walked across the street to talk to her (she was shy and didn't say much), and then walked down the street to her house to ask her parents if she could come over and play. They said that she had been talking about "the bunch of girls across the street" and wanting to play with them, but that when you are 5 years old, across the street might as well be across the world because you aren't allowed to go there! So true these days! My girls have the same rules, they can ride their bikes up and down the sidewalk on our side of the street, so I understood. But now that I have introduced myself, the little girl's parents let her come across the street whenever they see our girls outside, and all the girls happily ride their bikes and scooters up and down the sidewalk (I had to apologize to some older neighbors who almost got run over by little girls while trying to get their mail!).
Are you a helicopter mom? How have you loosened the reins and given your kids more independence? What age do you think is appropriate for crossing the street alone or going to the park alone? Please leave a comment, I really want to know!
Evenflo and JuiceBoxJungle sponsored me to write this post and talk about what child safety means to me and my family. Evenflo has just released the Momentum 65 DLX Convertible Car Seat, with features that help make safety, installation and use as easy as possible for parents.
