'Frrrreeedom. Just another word?...'

I'm not a parent. But I have read with considerable interest articles in the NY Times and most recently in the SF Chronicle addressing the issue of the independence of children; that is, the precise moment parents choose to let their kids experience the world without them. More specifically this might mean a child walking alone to the store or school, with perhaps peers, but without the parental unit. Agreed, it is a different world today, but I was fortunate to spend my youth in 2 cities: Honolulu and San Francisco. At age 7 I walked through a park behind my house with my cousin and caught the bus to go to a school about a mile away. I played independently in the park after school and walked to the store down the street and around the corner for a pre-dinner sugar fix. Once when I was 12 in SF, I missed the bus which would take me to Kaiser for allergy shots, and walked approximately 15 blocks through some edgy areas. I don't recall being scared, only worried about missing the shots. I'm not sure what constitutes the good ol' days and if striking out early suggests proprietary exploration, or if any of those experiences were meaningful. I can however, tell you that most of them have been damn good memories, while some of them have ended up as bs fodder on a therapist's floor. A life altering decision to go to a wilderness survival camp in Colorado dramatically changed my friend Jane's daughter's outlook on life. Ramona, 15, after spending a day (it might have been 2) and a night alone in the Colorado wild knew that she could stare down anxiety and come up with some sort of coherent response which would challenge conflicting situations and safeguard her well-being. So, yes, I do agree that a taste of freedom here and a taste of freedom there is a confidence booster for kids. Shackles have to come off sometime, right? What they do without the ball and chain is their business. Really. As Bobby Dylan once said: 'they're busy being born.' Ball busting parent? Or control freak? It's always comes down to choices. And thankfully, as an Aunt, a role I truly relish, I don't have to make them.