Go To on Childhood Independence

After Kelly's conversation with Lenore Skenazy this past Tuesday, we're going deeper into the moment that changed everything for this mom and sparked a national conversation about how we raise our kids. When Lenore's 9-year-old kept begging for some independence, she finally said yes—letting him ride the New York subway home alone from Bloomingdale's. The op-ed she wrote about it in The New York Sun brought fierce criticism and praise in equal measure, with some calling her brave and others suggesting she should be reported for child abuse. It's a story that gets to the heart of something so many of us wrestle with: How do we help our children develop confidence and self-reliance in a world that feels increasingly dangerous? And what happens when our desire to protect them might actually be holding them back from becoming the capable, independent people we want them to be?