I was sitting in the theater this weekend with all 4 of my sons with all of our 3D glasses on and I got to thinking:

How old does your child have to be in order for you to allow them to go to the bathroom alone while you remain in theater?  

For once in their lives they all held it the duration. It’s a loaded question and I’m sure most people would say that it depends on the child.  But lets dive into this.

Why is this an issue? Well I grew up in an age when children had a larger ROAMRADIUS.  We were allowed to leave the field vision without fear of getting in trouble. As long as we didn’t cause any mischief, get hurt, and came back at a reasonable time. All was well.

Now things have changed. Things didn’t cost so much. Kids could get some candy and a soda for a dollar at the store. Sexual Predators, Gangs, and the proliferation of information has caused parents to become hypersensitive.  God forbid your child get a cough and you go on Webmd to look at the symptoms. But I digress.  An extreme would be “Helicopter Parents”. 

Helicopter parent is defined as excessive. We all have our days where we are  DISSMISSIVE ,  ATTENTIVE or EXCESSIVE.  Your job as a parent is to make sure that you don’t spend too much time in the extremes.  Become dissmissive and the child may act out to get your attention. Become too excessive and you take away opportunities for them to develeop skills. Essentially handicapping their development.

For most states the age you can leave a child unattended at home is 12 years of age. By that time they are entering middle school, a pre-teen, and should be pretty capable. So my question posed is for school age children between the age of 6-11.  Let’s be reasonable. We are obviously not suggesting that you send an infant or toddler to the bathroom on a solo mission.

What are the barriers?

• Confidence
• Direction
• Safety

What do you think?
Respond below in the comments or Tweet me about your view of #ROAMRADIUS @Soularpowered