Are you a Helicoptor or a Cowboy?

On the spectrum between "Helicopter Parenting" and having "Free-Range Kids," I definitely fall
more toward being a hovering Helicopter Mother. My kids live about 1/4 mi from their school,
they walk as a pack of three sisters, and still 85% of the time I walk with them or follow them
2/3 of the way there. Their front yard boundary is two houses down from us. They never play in
the front yard alone (without another sister with them). We live in a small town, on a residential
street only 2 blocks long. (Can you hear the rotors from the helicopter?) Perhaps you have heard
some of this debate recently. I find it very interesting and it has been occupying much of my
thoughts these days.

Being an independent sort of person, I find independent thought and action a worthwhile trait to
instill in my children. How can I do this while keeping them safe from harm at all times? Of
course, I can't. But how much "hovering" is enough?, too much? There is no easy answer. Here
are a list of links that I followed (on another such night when I should have been sleeping), that
introduce the debate. I would love to hear others thoughts on the matter, I'm curious to see
what views are similar or different from my own.

This sight is an article that introduces the basic debate.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/133103/page/1

A follow-up story with additional theories as to the change in the parenting style.
http://www.slate.com/id/2189375

Lots, and I mean LOTS of anticdotes from people weighing in on the issue. Beware, the language
in a few, and don't follow any links to 'bad stories' before you go to bed at night. (They could be
largely why we "hover" in the first place.)
http://www.metafilter.com/70753/Free-Range-Kids

Although I promised myself I wouldn't blog late at night because I always read it later and
lament my grammer, speling, and puctuation, -not to mention my logic at times, I am not tired
yet, so I'll share some of my thought on the topic.
1: Yes, this generation of parents tend to hover way too much, for way too long.
2: Yes, this is largely because we have been scared witless by Dateline :), Law and Order, missing
persons pictures everywhere, and sensational media reporting.
But: bad stuff happens, and you don't want it to happen to "your kid."
3: No, we don't know our neighborhoods like back-in-the-day. Our neighbors, even if we know
them on the other side of the block, are probably not home cooking dinner and glancing out their
windows watching a pack of kids playing 4 square in the driveway. No one is home, not kids, not
neighbors.
But: Our kids have been taught what do if a stranger offers to give them a ride, they know how to
bite, kick, scratch, scream and run. They have to learn to trust their own abilities, instincts and
insights.
Furthermore, as Latter-Day Saints, hopefully we have taught our kids to recognize the spirit
when prompted, and respond accordingly. And we have to trust our own parental intuition and
revelation about individual circumstances. We know the Lord answers many of those prayers for
safety that we are always saying. :) And if not in the way we might like, well, the kids still have to
live, grow, and learn, and we have to let them. If they fall on the way to school, they can hobble
to the school nurse and get a band-aid! (Even if I won't be there to kiss it better.)

Not to reduce child rearing to playing odds, but how many of us still eat raw brownie batter and
cookie dough even though the increased likelihood of salmonella contaminated eggs is higher
than it used to be? Are the odds of getting salmonella poisoning from a raw egg more than the
crime rate in your town? More questions. Answers???