When you feel ready to let your kid use a sharp knife, or bike around the neighborhood, or go on a stone-cold, old-fashioned, Nerf and Sprite-fueled playdate, you might want to have the wind at your back — that is, some other parents cheering you on, or helping you let go, or simply eager to learn from your liberation. Where are those folks?
They gather at “Raising Independent Kids,” Let Grow’s Facebook Group. As I explain on the Let Grow blog: After a mom “confessed” that she was scared to let her 5-year-old use a knife, but then thrilled when she did and the little girl started wanting to help even more with food prep, the Facebook comments were not, “You wuss! What took you so long?†Nor were they, “Age 5? See you in the Emergency Room!†Instead they were curious, confessional, kind.
Want that kind of support in your life? A place where you can ask questions, offer ideas, come up with hacks around the culture that keeps overprotecting and underestimating kids? Join us at Raising Independent Kids by clicking here!
As we like to say at Let Grow: “Kids today are as smart strong and capable as their parents were at their age.” If that doesn’t sound radical to you — welcome!
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
My kids grew up helping on the farm I worked at. Not only did they carry and be trusted to use pocket knives from a young age ,4 or 5, they also got to learn to drive and operate the farm vehicles as soon as they could reach the pedals and see where they were going at the same time. Emergencies happen and all of them were prepared.