Quote Originally Posted by mimitabby View Post
Sorry about that, i couldn't resist. This is a topic near and dear to my heart. I tried very hard to raise my sons with freedom... and most people said to me; "welll, if they were girls you would have done it differently"
Oh Mimi....I have dealt with this very thing!! I have tried really really hard to be equal with my kids (son is 13 and BIG, daughter is 10 and tiny...64 lbs and almost 11 years old)...I think that sometimes you cannot treat them equally. I feel I can send my son out on his bike with his buddies and they can ride up and down the road and I don't need to worry (he is also into martial arts, so has the skills to fend off an attack). My daughter, however, is very small as I noted above, and while she's a tough little chick, she's still a little chick, which sometimes will make you more of a target. I can say this because I'm also a little chick, and it has made me a target. She is not interested in learning how to defend herself (too young I think), so would have to depend on her brain (which is good actually!!). I guess what I'm clumsily trying to say is that I'm not comfortable letting her and her friends ride up and down the road because she's a tiny girl....as much as it pains me to say that. So much for women's lib and equality and all that! She's still my baby.