going free-range?

Not so long ago, I heard about the book Free-Range Kids: Giving Our Children the Freedom We Had Without Going Nuts with Worry by Lenore Skenazy, and I knew right away that I wanted to read it. She's the lady you may have heard about last year, when the you-know-what hit the fan after she wrote this column. She was lambasted in the media, even being labeled 'America's Worst Mom.' I wasn't sure how I felt about the whole story, so I was glad to see that she had written this book to further explain her thoughts about helping children develop independence, since we're getting to a point with JAM that kinda changes the game... he'll be 9 next month, and I know that he's technically leaving the early childhood portion of his life behind, for this new, murky pre-adolescent period. AAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!

Okay, I'm back... so I requested a copy of the book for review, and my 5M4B editor happened to see it sitting on my virtual shelf over there. Turns out, she had requested a review copy as well! (She's got a 10 year old daughter, so I think our motivations were quite similar!) It all worked out wonderfully, as we did a review together, and I even got in touch with the author to set up a conference call-- which is available to listen to as a podcast on our review post-- and I found her to be very funny, very personable, and VERY reasonable in her thinking! Yes folks, it's time to go free-range!

Fast-forward to this week. Today is JAM's second day of camp, and yesterday I had to hand in forms and his medicine, so we used it as a dry run for the regular mode of transportation that he'll be using for this two week period-- we rode the Metro bus together for the 10 minute ride, I showed him when to pull the cord to indicate that he wants to get off at the next stop, and we walked over to the community center where his camp is held. One of the forms that I filled out gave permission for him to sign himself in to camp, so all our bases are covered.

With the practice run behind us, today was the real deal. We waited with him at the bus stop across the street for a few minutes and then calmly walked away after he had boarded and sat down. Okay, the outward appearance was one of calmness, but inside I was kinda conflicted. There was the logical part of me that knew he'd be just fine-- literally, he's safe on a bus and he knows where he's going. He was excited to be doing something all on his own, and I was confident in his ability to do it. But that doesn't discount the other part of me that felt some... what? Sadness? Well, not exactly... it's not sad to see him get older, maybe bittersweet? I guess it's all about the fact that we've come to the time when we have to begin letting him out into the world on his own... and that's just different and scary and exciting and unbelievable and wonderful, all at the same time.

What do you think? If you're interested in learning more or giving your two cents on the topic, and you just happen to be a Twitter-er, we'll be having a 'tweet-up' or a 'twitter-sation' or whatever other ridiculous-sounding name you want to give it, with Lenore Skenazy on Wednesday, July 15th at 10 pm (Eastern). Use the hashtag #freerangekids to join the conversation!

Finding our own free-range way,