Adulthood

What makes a person an adult? My first thought was that once a person takes responsibility for themselves they should be considered an adult.  I think sometimes this happens when children are quite young. When they have abusive/neglectful parents and end up fending for themselves, they lose their chance to be children and enjoy that short time of being dependent on adults who will take care of them while they have the chance to develop and learn how to take care of themselves. I also think there are the other extremes where people never truly take responsibility for themselves, whether they are completely dependent on parents or friends or society as a whole.

I think about this a lot. I know my goal as a parent is to raise independent, happy, productive citizens.  I want them to take care of themselves, but still be able to have that time to be a child. It is hard to strike the right balance and I think that the right balance may be different with each child depending on their needs. I find myself asking constantly if I'm giving each of them enough responsibility or too much?  Can they walk to school by themselves? Are they safe? Should I let him deal with his schedule problems by himself? If I help him am I a helicopter parent? If I don't, does that mean I don't care?

I know that through the coming years, I will ask myself many questions such as these and more. I just hope I can strike the right balance and help make my children's transition into adulthood as easy as possible.