This has certainly been one of the hardest things in my own experience of parenting. I really do believe that you have to let your kids face circumstances that could result in them being hurt -- if you remove the possibility of hurt, you often remove reality from whatever it is that they are doing. But I'm not very good at being brave enough to do this.

Here's an example: letting your two year old walk down a stair case. Two-year-olds (at least mine) inevitably fell down stairs. I often would reflexively stick out my hand for them to hold. That's a nice thing for a parent to do. But they probably would have gotten better at going down stairs if I hadn't always done that.

Here's another example: Let your 8-year-old go out biking in the street. We live in a pretty quiet area. Not too much traffic, but there are always people coming and going and some of them drive fast. It took me a while to get used to letting my son bike around the block on his own.

I know that when I was little (1990s), my brother and I did a lot of things on our own. We lived in a more rural area, and spent long afternoons in the woods doing whatever. We frequently ended up hurting ourselves. I really value those times (well, not so much getting hurt, but the possibility of it all).

Curious how you help yourself be brave enough to let your kids get hurt.