The mum who let her 9-year-old ride the subway on his own... and got a book deal out of it

[UnquietDad]

Maybe it's an old story (I'm guessing it is, since her book is meant to be done by now), but it's here

Wondered what you all thought?

(DD is 8, nearly 9 and I'm still wary of letting her go down the road to the local shop/newsagent on her own.)

I think this may have been discussed previously. I think I remember commenting on a thread a few months ago.

having read the article, i think she's an idiot and wouldn't dream of lining her pockets by buying any tripe she put out.

I'd be surprised if it wasn't! Apologies if I am rehashing old news but it was new to me.

Am also v dubious about the "smartest, best-written, laugh-out-loud book proposal I had read in years"

I think that at 9 it's a bit extreme but I agree that chn need more freedom. I was allowed to go wherever I wanted at 9 which was the norm at the time. It's too far over to the other end of the scale now.

if it's 'smart' to use your child as a financial vehicle by putting their lives in danger, the world has indeed become a sad place.

Wondering if she was planning the book all along and this was her way of getting publicity for it...

I know that at 9 I was getting from my school in the North side of Dublin to home in the South side, on my own, changing buses part-way. Probably not a realistic comparison with the NY subway (and why Bloomingdales?), though.

But I'm as guilty as most of us of over-protective helicopter parenting now. It's one of those things where if enough of us was prepared to give our kids more freedom, it would become the norm and there would be safety in numbers.

I remember reading the original article and enjoying it: it was funny, well argued and thought-provoking.

Good for her if she's spun it into a book deal. Doubt I'll buy the book, though.

There's 'helicopter parenting' and there's sending your 9-year-old off to use the subway system alone in a city of 8m people.

BIG difference.

There was a case only last year of a little boy that age using the Berlin tram for the first time on his own.

His meeting with a convicted paedophile was recorded on the tram's CCTV and his body was found shortly after.

This isn't 1978 or even 1988.

And yes, times have changed.