We have an exchange student who mentioned to me that in her home country teenagers enjoy a lot more freedom in terms of their independence than kids do here. Sh

We have an exchange student who mentioned to me that in her home country teenagers enjoy a lot more freedom in terms of their independence than kids do here. She's very independent, well-adjusted, and mature. I think there's a lot to childhood independence. On the other hand, I'm worry about my natural-born kid a lot. And while I'd like to let him explore, I'm not willing to risk custody of my child or government oversight of my parenting just to prove a point. I hope I can find that magical balance point where random strangers will just be impressed with a young kid doing mature things, rather than rush to authorities because no good parent would allow their child to do that...