Parenting isn’t harder… we just put a lot of pressure on ourselves. Media, books, articles, reality shows, they all tell us how to live life. There are so many rules and regulations. Are they true? Are they a myth? Maybe a scare tactic?
How many of us walked to school when we were six years old, took road trips while laying in the back window of the car, played with friends until the street lights came on and drank right out of the hose in the backyard. We survived and learned life skills from… well most of our adventures.
We don’t have to kill ourselves to be good parents. When you let your children have unstructed play you are giving them a gift of learning independence. Give yourself a break and let them play in the front yard and call on the boy down the street without setting a playdate first. We all learned from those experiences and our kids need to as well. It’s not less safe today, we just hear about what happened in the next city because media is so fast to get to us. Enjoy your children, don’t stress out too much.