a candidate for child-abuse charges or letting kids have their independence?

Here's Your MetroCard, Kid

Intro:

I left my 9-year-old at Bloomingdale's (the original one) a couple weeks ago. Last seen, he was in first floor handbags as I sashayed out the door.

Bye-bye! Have fun!

And he did. He came home on the subway and bus by himself.

Was I worried? Yes, a tinge. But it didn't strike me as that daring, either. Isn't New York as safe now as it was in 1963? It's not like we're living in downtown Baghdad.

Anyway, for weeks my boy had been begging for me to please leave him somewhere, anywhere, and let him try to figure out how to get home on his own. So on that sunny Sunday I gave him a subway map, a MetroCard, a $20 bill, and several quarters, just in case he had to make a call.

No, I did not give him a cell phone. Didn't want to lose it. And no, I didn't trail him, like a mommy private eye. I trusted him to figure out that he should take the Lexington Avenue subway down, and the 34th Street crosstown bus home. If he couldn't do that, I trusted him to ask a stranger. And then I even trusted that stranger not to think, "Gee, I was about to catch my train home, but now I think I'll abduct this adorable child instead."

Long story short: My son got home, ecstatic with independence.


Comments: Featured on The Today Show. Trust me I know they were "different times" and a different place: Growing up in Fort Wayne Indiana (1950's), we used take the bus all over town (the bus ride was a dime). We used to do endless exploring with "bike-hikes" in the Summer. Mom would pack a lunch and off we would go. Once we sent our middle son on a bike adventure in Denver. He called after about 3 hours and providing the cross streets said "where am I?". After that checkpoint he made it home OK. I actually applaud this woman for her willingness to let her son explore! Beat me up!