The fall season usually means a return to school. After reading an article in Newsweek about the way Japanese children go to school, Hosking wondered about how we parent in the U.S. How has this changed her view, and will she worry less about her own daughter's trip to school?

It’s fall once again, and this can only mean one thing - back to school time. Here in Arizona, school started over a month ago. This year my oldest daughter is seven years old and a big second grader. She’s been going to the same neighborhood school since pre-k. This means a couple things, 1) the school is close by - a fifteen to twenty minute walk, and 2) there are no buses - children either walk, bike, or are driven by a parent.

The school’s handbook clearly states: First graders and older students are allowed to bike to school. Since pre-k I’ve been walking my daughter to and from school because I don't drive. I felt that six years of age was too young to go to and from school alone. Therefore last year, I began walking to school three times a day: Once to drop off my girls, the second time to pick up my little one who was in half day pre-k, and the third time to pick up my older daughter. The prospect of walking to school three times a day a second year was enough to wear me out. Plus, my older daughter insisted she was capable of getting home from school on her own by the end of last school year. So Mom bit the bullet, and after walking to school three times the first day, I told my big second grader, “you’re on your own coming home.”

The first week was harder on Mom than her daughter. The first day of coming home alone, she had a fit Mom was waiting at the major cross street; the second Mom was at the top of our street; and the third day, there was a fit Mom was waiting in front of the house. Both of us survived that first week, and the seven year old was very proud of her accomplishment.

Mom? Well, she still worries but then she read an article in Newsweek . It talked about how a six year old boy in Japan got to school. He has to take two trains and a bus, a ninety minute trip, to get to school on his own. In Japan it is customary for all children to get to school on their own. It is their way of teaching children how to be self sufficient. And here I was worried about a twenty minute walk!

Has reading the article made me worry less about my daughter’s trip home? No, but it did make me realize how, here in the United States, we have become what is known as helicopter parents. We hover over our children and don’t let them try new things for fear they may fail. I think I would feel very much like the Japanese mother never quite comfortable with the idea of my child going by himself on such a long trip. On the other hand, I think we can learn something from the Japanese, too. If you don’t cut your children off the apron strings, they’ll never learn to be self sufficient. This will be more of a hindrance than a help once it’s time for our children to actually be out on their own.

Will I still worry, yes. But day after day, week after week, my daughter is showing me she is responsible enough to do this, and I have realized it is teaching her a valuable lifetime lesson.