My kids are with their grandparents on vacation. I guess I just have to trust them since they are way out of MY sight!
So a friend and I took the opportunity to go to dinner tonight. We passed a ten year old pushing a stroller with a toddler in it, no parent in sight.
At first we commented "where's the parents?" but then we realized we could have done the exact same thing. I was riding the bus home alone in 4th grade and watching my sister who was a kindergartener from 3-5 each afternoon. Both parents were no more than 10 minutes away from home but they trusted me at 10 y/o. We can say nowadays that parents have to be hyper vigilant, there are alot of crazies out there. But what's wrong with an older sibling taking a younger one for a stroll? We live in a very safe area, but we realize things can happen. We yearn for the days of our youth and independence is still a good thing. Sometimes we just have to trust our kids and have faith that things will turn out okay.
It made us sad that we automatically questioned the parents for allowing an older sibling to take a younger one out for a pre-dinner walk.
My neice is 15 years old and has never been home alone. I can certainly understand wanting to keep your kids safe, but at some point you have to let go a bit and give them the freedom to act in a responsible manner.
My oldest is 14 and my youngest is 8. Only this summer have I allowed the older one to babysit the younger one for VERY short periods of time. I'm a nervous wreck about it too.
I babysat an infant at 12 YO and 2 small children all summer at 14 YO. But I just cannot view my oldest son as responsible as I was.