By: Dawn Thompson
I’ll never forget the first time I left my little one, “Home Alone.” She was 10 years old! My brother and his wife lived on the first floor, we lived on the second floor and my cousin was up on the third floor. Although she had adults around in case of an emergency, for the most part she was fending for herself. This was not out of necessity, but a desire of HERS to be independent. While I didn’t go far, I did leave “to-do” things like, walk the dog or plant flowers in the yard. This was also the age where she started to go to the park with friends and wanted some freedom.
As she got older and became more responsible, she naturally gained more freedom. Now, that’s not to say ALL of her choices were great ones, but for the most part she took very good care of herself. When she turned 13, she became interested in babysitting. It was like starting all over. Is she old enough? Is she ready? Can she handle it? And she did just fine!
At the time, we didn’t have cell phones. Sometimes I wonder if that helped build problem solving skills. Not that constant contact isn’t a great idea, I just wonder if kids these days think as critically on their own. Now that our son has reached that golden age of independence, he too is begging for FREEDOM. Telling us to go out, to leave him, that he doesn’t need a sitter.
Even though he is a year and a half OLDER than his sister was, he is a DIFFERENT person. Not only is he far more dependent, but he also has special needs. Every day he gets bigger and smarter than the day before and naturally wanting to gain independence. We have been in a tough spot trying to figure out how to give him the same type of freedom he desires without putting all the responsibility on him, because he is not quite response-ABLE on his own.
For now, we will work on him joining clubs and social groups that have an overall supervisor, but will allow him interaction with his peers. Over the next few years, we will be doing a lot of hanging close by, but letting him make his own choices. Although it’s a lot harder to let go abit, we realize the independence we allow him to make himself as self-sufficient as possible when he is an adult. Dylan said the other day, “Come on Mum, I am going to be driving in 5 years.” While I don’t know if that is true, I do know that helped putting things in prospective 
