Vote of Confidence

At about 1:30 on Sunday afternoon the doorbell rang.  It was three boys from the neighborhood asking if my oldest son(9) could come play. 

"I want to go too." my second son(7) said.

I looked back the boys.

"He can come." they answered.

"I'm going to feed them lunch and then I'll bring them over." I told the boys.

They rode off.

I dropped the boys off later and told them to be careful walking home - it's about .85 miles from where I was dropping them to my house -  and they've never walked that far alone before.

If you're horrified - don't be.  My street is shaped like this: 9--

The main street is the underline.  The dashes are a cul-de-sac that runs off the 9.  I live on the belly of the 9 so to get home frome the play date the boys had to walk to the top of the cul-de-sac(.6 miles)  and then walk a quarter mile along the bottom of the 9. 

It's far, and they've never done it before but at 7 and 9 it was TOTALLY doable.

When the girls realized that the boys were gone they asked, "When you go get the boys can we come?"

"We're not going to get the boys." I told them. "they're walking home."

The 4yo looked at the 6yo.  "They'll get run over." she said.  The 6yo nodded.

(They didn't.   They were fine.)

Comments

[Mrs. MidAtlantic]

I think it's awesome that your trust your boys with the responsiblity of walking themselves home! Sounds like your neighborhood is pretty safe anyway. Fun!

[Whitney Soup]

this is why i love children - they have true intuition.

[Jessie Powell]

Awesome indeed! I routinely look for ways to give my 8 year old those little moments of freedom.

[Stephanie]

<3 it! Those little girls sound wise beyond their years! Glad the boys had fun & did not live up to the prediction of their sisters!

[Kit]

Not only did the boys do great but they were great brothers to each other. So PROUD of them! <3 Kit

[John]

I love the "about .85 miles" because, well, I say the same thing . . . that's what you do when you're a runner.