When I was growing up I remember being told “stay safe and make sure you’re back when the street lights turn on”. My summers were filled with adventures and no parents anywhere in site. I knew every inch of my hometown like the back of my hand! Oh I long for hot summer days, cool friends and total and complete freedom!
Now forward to today and my own children. My boys extent of lack of parental freedom is them playing outside, in my full few, while I still check on them every 10 seconds. Even my teenager isn’t allowed to go far unless he has his cell phone on him and I know where he is at every minute of the day. What did we do before cell phones anyways? I guess you could say I’m hyper paranoid and a helicopter mom but from what I can tell most of the parents around me are just as cautious. As a matter of fact I tend to allow my children a little more freedom than some moms.
When I talk about how ridiculous we are about not allowing our kids to run free I always get the “well it’s not safe now days like it was when we were kids”. In all honestly, it is but we hear about it more often now. Between Amber alerts, the news channels, twitter and the instantaneous availability of bad news our generation seems to run of fear. We all fear the worse and when bad things happen we all like to blame someone else. So we keep our kids wrapped tight in our web of parental fear hoping for the best and yet still fearing the worse.
I just wish our kids could experience the same long summer days that we did back in the day without feeling guilt. I’ll continue to protect my boys but I think it’s time to loosen the apron strings and just start letting my kids be kids. At the end of the day they will have their own personal memories, fun adventures while they also gain a since of pride knowing that they are trusted and are becoming independent men. So now I need to find the balance of being their protector but not smothering. I just can’t keep over mothering because in the end they may be safe but have missed out on so much of life. It’s so hard being a mom sometimes. UGH!
So here’s to fun summers and safe kids!
