Somebody come and play

For the last couple of days, a kid has been coming to our door and asking if Evan can come out and play. I think he's new to the neighborhood, as I've never seen this kid before. He must be about 8 or 9, and sometimes he has his little sister with him (she's around 6 or 7 I guess). So every day I say no, and every day they hang out in our front yard for a while before going on their merry way. Finally yesterday I told them Evan would never be allowed out to play with them and that they shouldn't ask anymore. It was getting on my nerves, and each time they came to the door Ev would get wound up and want to go out, blizzard or not.

Now, I don't want to be the bitch here, but if I let Evan out to play he might never come back. Okay, so maybe that's not true, he probably would come back, but I still don't trust him to be outside by himself. And I don't trust him with older kids. I don't think I'd even trust him outside by himself in a fenced in yard, let alone roaming around the neighborhood. At what age can kids do that? Five is too young, right? But then I see kindergarteners walking to school by themselves. At some point he's going to be old enough to be out on his own to play, but for some reason I can't ever see that day in my head. He's going to be locked up with me until he's 30.

This comes to mind because Ev has become very independent in the last month or so. He wants to take charge of all of his self-care--washing and wiping and dressing. I'm good with that, and he's doing a great job so far. But I'm also not allowed to walk him to the bus anymore (no biggie, as it picks him up right in front of the house). The last time he had therapy, Ev asked me to drop him off at the door and come get him when it was over. He also wanted to go visit Mike at work, and I was supposed to wait in the car with Grady while he went. It becomes difficult to convince Ev that this isn't possible, that if Mommy let him roam free I might end up in jail.

I'm trying to figure out ways to give him that freedom without making me an absolute wreck or getting Ev mowed down in traffic. It's a work in progress, and one that I think is going to be an issue around here for many years to come.