Freedom and Independence

To give my kids a taste of freedom and independence, I'm going to want to:

• Discuss their choices in tattoos and piercings but not actually go with them to the place to have it done (too embarrass for both of us),
• Allow them to go to Queensland on Schoolies Week with nothing but a suitcase full of towels, bathing suits and money,
• Say "yes" to every request for money,
• Say "yes" to every request to borrow the car,
• Say "yes" to every request for concert tickets, or every request to attend a party even when I know that party might have kids/stuff I don't like there,
• Give them a car as soon as they earn their licence,
• Not tell them that the guy/girl they are dating are no-good pieces of shit who will just break their hearts,
• Bite my tongue when I see them eating too many carbs/sugars/high fat food/whatever is clearly not at all good for them,
• Allow them to make their own choices about going to university (or not), what to study (or not),
• Allow them to wear whatever they like even when a street walker's clothes would be nun-like in comparison,
  
• Let them control all their own money, starting from now,
• Never teach them how to read maps of the non-GPS kind,
• Leave them on their own to figure out most things even when I've already been there and done that and know the right answer,
• Tell them to give up when it all gets too difficult, and all them t0 make their own choice to try again (and this applies to everything from bike riding to time management to making babies to making souffles),
• Come home from school and neither DH nor I will be waiting for them, but get home and expect that they've already done their homework/showers/dinner cooking,
• Look out for one another but stand on their own two feet,

...but I can't say that I'll ever do ANY of those things, even if I will want to. The best I can hope for is to fulfil that old cliché of giving them both roots and wings. The rest will just have to work itself out.