At What Age?

As a parent, one of the best things you can do for your kids is to give them freedom when they get to a certain age, it could also be one of the worse things that could happen to them.

_{photo by Krishna Dubagunta}

As a child, I grew up in a home where my parents (most especially my dad) were very strict when it came to how free we were to roam around. My dad rarely allowed us attend parties or go out with friends. If it wasn't happening closeby, we weren't going...sometimes even if it was happening around, we still weren't allowed to go.

So growing up with that kinda training, made me feel like I needed to get far away from home when the opportunity eventually presented itself. Luckily for me, those days I spent at home weren't exactly spent doing nothing, certain morals were instilled in me, morals I weren't even aware of at the time until I left home and got tested in different ways possible.

Lately, I've been asking myself questions, questions like what age would be the right age to be comfortable with your kid being independent and away from home. This is actually a very important and serious question for me because as a parent, you feel protective of your kids and wouldn't want to let them out of your sight for too long, but then you also know you can't keep them at home forever because they have to go out there, live their lives and experience the world themselves.

All of that kinda places you in a dilemma because at one hand you want to do what you feel is right by being protective and on the other hand you want to do what you know is right by letting them see life themselves.

Back then I never thought of it like this because I was the kid who was getting the freedom and all I wanted was to leave home, and I didn't even think of my parents and how they felt about me leaving..I was just focused on leaving, which to me right now feels selfish.

Also, as a parent, you just know that timing (and the right amount of home training) matters a lot because you don't want your kid going out there and becoming something unrecognisable, something you're not proud off. So is there a way to find the perfect timing to let a child out your home or do you just do it when they're of the legal age and pray for the best?