I let my 7-year-old walk to the park alone—it's three blocks away—and my neighbor called me irresponsible. I get that times have changed, but statistically, stranger abductions are incredibly rare, and my kid knows the route and the safety rules. If I bubble-wrap her now, how will she ever learn to handle risk? The parental manuals all say to foster independence, yet the social pressure says otherwise. Can you genuinely raise a resilient child without giving them any freedom?