Parents of Year 6 children

[Hullabalooza]

AIBU to ask if anyone else is finding this last year of having your child at primary school is the hardest one yet? Child in question is a dream, but I on the other hand am so worried. How to build independence? How much or little freedom to give them? How to prepare them for entering the snake pit that is high school? Do they go out alone? How do we monitor phone effectively without invading trust? Ugh it’s a constant source of worry.

How are others managing it? As you can probably tell this is oldest child so it’s all new. AIBU to be so stressed? (Don’t worry, it’s very well hidden, I’m easy breezy on the outside)

samsung phones have a brilliant feature which sends my phone a message when they are leaving and coming back to the house, Im sure apple have something similar.

Airtag or similar for their key as mine are terrible for loosing things.

Label everything they own so it can be retrieved from lost and found lol

Have really enjoyed reading all these replies, thank you. I think the nature of the child can affect the amount one worries- this one is quite away with the fairies, whereas my younger is a bit more streetwise and switched on. But I agree, break things down and tackle them gradually. We have a similar phone policy to most people with random checks and clear guidelines, we have started with popping into a shop etc. Sadly we live too far from school to walk since moving, and friends are also quite spread out. But practising the route to high school is a good one to tackle next I think, maybe some bike rides round that way.

Road safety is a particular source of worry due to aforementioned head in the clouds nature, so maybe some very structured ‘mum lessons’. I think I worry too that their sensitive nature means handling difficult situations will be tricky. But listening to others at the same parenting stages is really helpful, thank you guys. More insights welcome.