Wouldn't that be nice?
Just don't let the kid ride the subway in Manhattan alone or you'll be accused of child abuse:
http://freerangekids.wordpress.com/2008/04/06/why-i-let-my-9-year-old-ride-the-subway-alone/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lenore-skenazy/more-from-americas-worst_b_96175.html
When I was 9 years old I used to walk or take bus a mile to church and school on my own and I made dinner for myself and my sister while Mom worked. Yeah. The neighbor, who was only across the hall, screamed at my Mom.
Kudos to the young balloonist. It's good to know that not everyone thinks kids are helpless morons.
When I was 9 I used to ride the subway from Brooklyn to Queens to see the Mets play at Shea Stadium in Flushing -- sometimes with my 5-year-old brother in tow. No one thought anything strange about it. We were two kids going to watch a baseball game.
We also walked the roughly three-quarters of a mile to the Sanders Theater (craftily pocketing the money Mom had given us for bus fare) to see matinee double features and enjoy the air conditioning on hot summer days, or to Prospect Park to play baseball or just explore.
Fast forward now...
Yesterday, I asked my almost 13-year-old goddaughter to run to the store four blocks away to pick up a few things for supper. She looked at me aghast and said, "But that's too far!"
I thought she meant it was too far to walk, so I said, "Oh, stop. You're young. The exercise will do you good."
"No," she said, "I mean mom doesn't let me go that far by myself."
I was dumbfounded. At her age, I was taking Trailways buses a hundred miles Upstate to go on weekend camping trips with other kids.
So I debated the decision. My neighborhood in Queens is a lot safer a place than is her neighborhood in Philly, the store I was sending her to is four blocks away and owned by a very good friend of mine, and those four blocks are lined with at least a dozen other friends of mine.
So I sent her anyway.
When she returned, she was beaming with pride. I was actually a little sad, though. For a kid of nearly 13 years old, a four-block walk shouldn't be a developmental milestone.
We were much freer back in the "old days," and I think a lot more capable as a result. With so much more freedom, and with no cell phones to electronically tether us to our mothers, I think we became confident with the concept of navigating our way through life at a much younger age than most kids nowadays.
-Rich