Hi Readers! This just in! Yes, it is the tale of an extremely normal childhood moment, but in this day and age it counts as Big News! Ring the bells, hoist a juice box and read on!
Dear Free-Range Kids: I had a Free-Range victory yesterday as well! My 8-year-old daughter (third grade) has a girl in her class this year who lives in the same little section of our neighborhood as we do. It takes about five minutes to walk to her house.
The girls have played together several times throughout the school year. Usually they all (the mom and her two daughters) come by our house on the way to the park or something or we (moms) arrange something by phone. The last couple of times that they have invited my daughter over, my daughter has walked down to their house without me.
Yesterday their daughter came to our house all by herself, knocked on the door, and asked if our daughter could go to her house to play. The two of them walked together back to the girl’s house.
I was so excited! We have three kids ages 5, 6, and 8 and we have children the same ages all over our neighborhood. This is the first time any child has ever come over by themselves and asked to play.
I go back and forth between being ecstatic and being slightly depressed that I would be so happy about something that was so commonplace when I was growing up. Baby steps… — Susan
