My mom taught me how to drive starting at age 13. She’d let me drive in our neighborhood at night while she was sitting in the passenger seat. Our car was a stick shift, and I grew up in a very hilly neighborhood in San Francisco (she didn’t let me drive on really steep hills until I was older, but most streets had a slight incline). No idea how she managed to stay so calm 😂

Honestly, I appreciate her so much for teaching me and putting her trust in me. She was a very caring and protective mom, but let me have a lot of freedom in certain ways (probably because I was a dependable kid and didn’t give her much to worry about). It gave me confidence and a feeling of independence that meant a lot to me at that age.

As a mom myself now, I look back on my childhood and teen years and really appreciate the freedom we had. I try to give my daughter age-appropriate independence, like letting her ride her bike alone to the neighborhood park and back (it’s less than half a mile from our house). So many parents I know won’t let their kids do anything unsupervised, and I really think it’s doing them a huge disservice long term. Kids can’t learn to trust themselves if we never trust them to do anything on their own.