My 11-year-old daughter and her friends need pedometers. I want to know how many steps these girls are clocking on an average day. They’re walking everywhere, to each other’s houses, the local pizza shop, the nail salon — all over the neighborhood.
I give my children this freedom very mindfully: I want them to be confident, resourceful, and independent. Once, another mother wanted to have her daughter join a walk the girls were taking to the pizza shop. She asked us, “Is it OK if I follow behind them in our car?” Thankfully, the other mothers and I were on the same page and simultaneously replied, “No, we’re not OK with that. The point of the outing isn’t the pizza. There’s a greater purpose behind letting them have the freedom to get there on their own.”
