There comes a time when you have to let go, walk away and trust that your kids know what they are doing.

For the past few weeks, we have been giving our oldest Ashley a little more freedom. We let her walk ahead in Harris Teeter to get a cookie, she rides her scooter down the street without us being on top of her, she ran back into a restaurant to get my car keys that I had left there while I watched from the parking lot.

These may seem silly and dumb and some of you may even be saying, Good Grief already. But it’s huge for me. She’s only four. But I knew I needed her to feel some independence since she was going to be starting kindergarten.

And start she did. What was the big adjustment for me was just putting her on a bus and trusting she made it to the classroom. For four years, I was used to walking her to her classroom and making sure she was there and accounted for. Now, I am assuming she knows how to get to her class (although she does have a neighbor, a fifth grader, who has been making sure she gets to her class).

I can vividly remember the first time my Mom let me walk up and order dessert at a Burger King. I was probably nine years old, and I had always been kind of shy. The teenagers working behind the counter seemed eight feet tall, but after I ordered and got my ice cream, I felt eight feet tall.

My one fear with Ashley as she stretches her independence is dealing with strangers. Yes, we have had that talk and read the books. What was hard for her to comprehend was why I could talk to strangers and she couldn’t. The only thing I could answer was she would understand when she was a Mommy.

Ashley turns five next Monday, and I reflect back to these last five years and at points they flew by and at others, time stood still. Like her first steps, the first time she slept through the night, and now the first step up on a school bus. Would I rewind time and go back? No, because I know I wouldn’t have wanted my Mom to do that.

Amy appears every Wednesday on TriangleMom2Mom. Read more about Amy on her blog A Family Story.