Helicopter Moms vs. Free-Range Kids

This article is a breath of fresh air. When I think of my childhood, I have memories of playing outside from sunup to sun down, only coming home for meals. As long as we stayed within certain boundaries, we could go wherever and do whatever we wanted. My mom would even let us walk to a fruitstand - unsupervised - that was about a mile away and across a very busy highway, to buy treats. None of us was ever hit by a speeding car, none of us was ever abducted, and we never got lost or got into any trouble. I think about how young we were when we were doing these things, and I think, "I don't know if I would ever let my kids do that!" I try not to be a paranoid mom - even when I'm freaking out on the inside, I try to keep a calm demeanor so my kids won't sense my panic and grow to be paranoid themselves. But I'm not really sure how to find a good middle ground between over-protective and negligent. This article answered a lot of questions for me, and helped me realize that the world is not as scary a place as many of us might think.