Parenting Without A License

Norman Rockwell Lives

Posted by Kimberly on April 17th, 2008 — Posted in Kipple

One of the unexpected bonuses of changing schools this year has been the discovery that there really are kids around here. A whole neighbourhood of them, actually. And right in our backyard!

In the four years we’ve lived here, who knew?
Well, I suppose I always knew there were kids around here, but up until now Diva Girl’s social life has always taken place on the other side of the street–the drawback of a school boundary waiver being that nobody lives where you do. Our top floor address has probably also kept Sabrina out of the mix around here. Not that living in the penthouse makes us too cool to play with the other kids; it’s just darned inconvenient to introduce your daughter to the neighbourhood kids when your baby  needs to nap and the big kid just isn’t quite big enough to be out on her own.
Now, however, there is a whole complex full of kids Sabrina knows–kids who are in her class, kids she rides the bus with, kids she sees on the playground, everywhere we turn, more kids. And with the warm weather here and the sun finally making an appearance, they are all outside the minute they drop their backpacks and grab an afterschool snack.

Best of all, Diva Girl is right out there with them.

This year I’ve been trying to loosen the apronstrings enough to at least give the appearance of freedom and responsibility, so I have on occasion allowed her to go out an play without my direct supervision. She’s not really unsupervised–there are a couple of moms out there watching the smaller kids. Moms I’ve talked to enough at the bus stop or while watching our children playing together to feel confident that Brina will be safe while skipping or playing tag outside, even if mine is not the maternal eye under which she is being watched.

Diva Girl doesn’t know that, however. To her mind, she is finally Big Enough to be a Big Kid and she is thrilled. These days she can barely wait to get out and get playing with her friends–There are balls to bounce, places to hide, ropes to jump, and bikes to ride. What there is not is time to wait for her mom and pokey baby sister to tag along with her.  She’s much too cool for that now.
I thought it would be harder, watching her run away from me like this. Mostly though, I’m happy for her. Watching her run and shriek and laugh with a gaggle of other children, my heart swells and any sadness over my baby growing up and leaving me behind is wiped away by my satisfaction with how she is growing up–happy, healthy, and unfettered by most of the baggage that comes from living in the 21st Century with a mom who is parenting without a license.