some insights

Mom sent an interesting article today. At the end of a recent but long post, I asked if anyone had insight into when to allow your child some independence with outdoor play. No one has commented, but I know that there are some of you out there reading...

The upshot of this article was to consider your child's previous behaviors and gauge their maturity, in combination with the potential risk level for whatever activity you're considering. Their example was an 11 year old girl being allowed to go the mall unsupervised or not.

My conclusion in my situation: Ian does not show signs of thinking through outcomes or being aware of injury risk in other situations, (i.e. I think I'll turn my little tikes sled upside down and ski on it down mommy's staircase... just to see what happens... thank God I discovered him in the nick of time at the top of the stairs, rather than whatever I would have discovered at the bottom) and the risks are high when it involves bike riding with streets and driveways nearby. So - he's not ready.

I can't say this is unaffected by recent events with Steven Curtis Chapman's family and others I know of who have lost children. My family tendency leans toward overprotective... and I don't want to stifle growing independence, but in this case safety seems more important than independence.

All this leads to the next question: how do I say, "kiddo you are just too little" without crushing his spirit? (Many of you know first hand, four year old boys desperately want to be big like daddy!) I've had a few attempts at this discussion just today but am not sure how successful they were.