If she were going for real pirates' booty and not snack food, I might worry.

How times have changed. I walked four blocks by myself to buy comic books and penny candy when I was 8, and I don't think my mother gave it a second thought. That fact that it really was penny candy gives this post a distinctly archaic air.

And, she's back. Gone 7 minutes, very proud of herself.

Excellent job, Casper!

And, she's back. Gone 7 minutes, very proud of herself.

So, do you like live over a Whole Foods? I'm not sure where I could go in 7 minutes, but I sure couldn't complete a WF transaction.

I walked to the corner store with a $20 bill myself, at age 8, and lost it somehow along the way. I was devastated (my mother was actually quite understanding; I must have been a hard kid to discipline, because I self-punished so well.) On the plus side, I can now send her to run errands at WF (although it's tricky - how do you ask for a dozen eggs, not the omega-3 fortified or the free-range, just the straight local ones). On the negative side, she may take it into her head to go buy snacks all the time now.

One issue with kids' independence these days is it's so hard to safely walk in a lot of places. We live in an affluent, in-city, "walkable" neighborhood, and there are BIG streets with poorly-sited crosswalks, places with sidewalks that just die, places with no sidewalks...

We live on a dead-end street. At the end of the street, you cross train tracks, go down a small hill, and you're in the WF parking lot. Perhaps she was very clever and hit the "10 items or fewer" line?

How times have changed

Indeed. Range free, kids! Develop problem-solving skills and resilience!

When I was Casper's age my mother forgot to pick me up at CCD (after-school program for the Catholic kids). So I walked the half-mile to the center of town from the church and called home on the public phone in the little market. (I wonder if I had to borrow a dime? I doubt I would have been brave enough to ask whoever was working there, I was very shy.)

Nowadays I suspect I wouldn't have been allowed to leave the church at all without someone approved to pick me up.

I think I only really go full Illyria when I have some kind of stomach bug. I hate, hate, hate, HATE to throw up , so much so that I suffered through several hours of stomach cramps this morning until my husband made me just get up and do it.

Now I slept for three hours and have a fever. And I've spent so much time lying in bed that my muscles hurt.

So mac woke up yesterday and got sick. we stayed home. I started not feeling great around three and took to bed. I swear, I slept almost straight through from 4pm yesterday to 10am today. Mac still had a low fever this morning at 7, so no school and no work for me. He feel better now, I feel like their are weights in my head and no food sounds good, but I am hungry - so far I've had 2 bowls of cereal and a decaf iced tea.

I have watched all the tv -( SCANDAL!! , and I liked the first 2 eps of Parenthood - Haddie at college, GONE! ptuie on her is all)

My room is a disaster and I though maybe I could rally a good half-hour/45 min of cleaning up in there, but sloth.

msbelle, is that a Parenthood spoiler for this season?

I think at our school 4th graders and older are allowed to walk home by themselves, if you sign a form saying so. But I never see any kids not being met by a parent. Casper could do it, but I don't really trust her to wrangle Dillo home.

(I love that Suela explained CCD - as someone from New England I can't recall not knowing what that is - but it took me a while to figure out what VBS was when I moved to the South. (Vacation Bible School.) Of course, I still misread RPG as rocket propelled grenade in fannish contexts, so perhaps I am somewhat impaired.)