Independence Day: Time to Leave the Nest

Like many parents, I struggle with the balance between protecting my children and being over protective. When I was growing up, my siblings and I were allowed to travel only as far as the sound of the car horn would carry. In rural Colorado, that was probably a mile. Three toots from the horn was our instruction to come home. I was five years old and free to wander independently through the neighbors farms, in the woods and across the fields. I learned, early, to avoid the neighbors pig pen. Pigs can be quite mean.

We had a fort in the rocks, a fort in the woods, a fort in the sagebrush, and a fort in the willows. I didn't think much about the independence and freedom I was given. It's just the way it was.

Times are different, I hear, and I'm told I have to watch my children more closely now. My children aren't as independent as those of my friends. It's summer now. The time when many children go away to camp. Mine prefer day camps and home to the idea of overnight camp. It's Independence Day in the United States, and I wonder just how independent I should let (or force) my children be.

I found this little fellow out beside our pool. I hope he was not pushed out of the nest too soon.