Good comments both of you!
I agree that we keep our kids little kids too long.
(Although mine is still a little girl, and I tend to be an overprotective mama...I give her the tools she needs for what her dreams are. I hope she dreams big like her cousin and takes flying lessons when she’s a young teen, and wants to be a missionary pilot later.)
My son wanted to learn to fly when he was 16. I told him that he needed to get a job and pay for it himself and I said he should probably try looking for a job at the airport. He borrowed my car and went to the airport (25 miles away) and got a job that day working as a dispatcher for a small flight school. He ended up getting free flight lessons and got his pilot's license on his 17th birthday. He also bought his own car when he was 16 so he could continue to work at this job.