Can Five Year Olds Play Unsupervised?
My 5 year-old recently expressed an interest in playing outside with her friends WITHOUT ME. Oh, the agony of finally having to loosen those apron-strings. What?”, I replied.
The mere thought of her being out of my sight for more than a minute was agonising. My having spent the past 5 and a half years watching her every move, obsessive about her welfare and safety, it seemed I would now throw away by allowing her out into the big bad world by herself for an hour (specifically, the Green in front of our house!).
I allowed her out last Sunday for an hour and spent that time staring out of the upstairs window, watching her every move (without her knowing of course). Yesterday, I allowed her out again but 10 minutes later (just as I was beginning to relax with a cup of tea and a cheeky biscuit), she came back, followed closely by 6 friends and all dragging their muddy shoes into the playroom to be shown her extensive collection of My Little Pony’s! Alas, the biscuit was hidden and I was suddenly thrust into supervising 7 kids instead of none! Another disadvantage of letting her out I guess, but at least I knew where she was and that she was happy.
The Easter holidays next week will bring more of the same, not to mention the Summer Holidays! But i’m finding myself proud of the fact that she is coming out of her shell from the painfully shy child that she was. She’s finally facing her little bit of the world as a confident girl who has friends wanting to spend time with her.
I’m sure all parents feel the pain of this gradual loosening of the apron strings and i’m just going through stage 1, with many more stages to come. I felt i’d just share that experience with you!
Noelle x
