Originally posted by cindy21494
Do what makes you comfortable. Only you know if your child can handle this responsiblity.
And only you know if you are ready for the child to have the responsibility regardless of if they are ready for it.
Apron strings need to be cut sometime - but you may not by ready to cut them, or even lengthen them, at eight or ten (or even thirty six).
My own two cents (and mine are preschoolers, so we will see how I feel when they are ten) is that I hope they are ready for signout privledges at ten, because I'd rather have them learn the responsibility and boundries when they are young and the biggest problem is likely to be that they spend too much time pushing buttons in the elevator than fall in with a wild crowd in the teens club and have the responsibility for the first time when they are fifteen. I'm not naive and I know ten year olds CAN get into bigger trouble, but it seems less likely that my ten year old might get caught in a makeout session back in the room than my sixteen year old might, and that a sixteen year old who had signout privledges at ten will have some idea of alternative activities.
