11 Plus Exams Forum

Well I've done it and now it's started it seems to have developed a life of its own! Independence that is.

On Thursday DS1 and friend got bus all the way to new school, had a hot choc, and then got the bus all the way back. Three hours in all (hour each way and an hour's wait in the middle for the return bus). When he got back to the bus stop he elected to walk the mile home instead of me picking him up! (We just felt he had to do a trial run before September.)

This morning he wanted a magazine and our nearest shop is a mile away so he asked to walk there and back. That's where he is now.

Really proud of him (and me for that matter) but feel a bit odd..... Is this unusual, am I being too lax? Am I breaking some age old law I don't know about? Remember this is the child who, until now, has had to be taken everywhere because of where we live and the appalling bus services.

Why don't they come with instruction books!!!

Perfectly normal reactions Doodles, nothing to be alarmed about. You will feel strange and slightly bereft for but a short while, then you'll wonder why you worried. Then you'll worry in case he loses his 'phone or the battery runs out, or he turns it off.

Then you'll worry when he starts going out with girls

Oh Heavens above - can't deal with that this week too

Natural feeling doodles! Kids have amazing ability to get from one place to the next on fairly minimal instructions. I let DD and DS "find" their way on the London underground / Paris Metro etc etc - off course I am trailing along behind (we live in the Yorkshire Dales - so this is big stuff). They can get wherever they need to go, they grow up v quickly - just think only 7 years more and they will be off on a gap year

My DH and I feel exactly the same about letting go. Despite our internal turmoil, we knew that we had to do trial bus runs so our DD is able to take the bus on her own in September. So on Thursday, DD and I took the bus together to her new school. However, she got the bus back on her own and I was on the next bus. Today, she went to school and back by herself. That said, we spent every minutes worrying until she was back home. We are very proud that she did this on her own and so was she. We intend to do more trial runs so she gets enough practice.

We will always feel protective towards our DD and it would be strange not to be. They will always be our DD but like our parents did for us, we have to let them go.

I have also started to let Midget out a little bit. He's walked to the cafe occasionally and get's a cup of tea and read's his book for a while before coming back home. He has only one busy road to cross but it terrifies me still, but I do think he's far more sensible by a road without me being there to rely upon.

Just got comfortable with him walking to the youth club and back on his own