Originally Posted by Dude
Originally Posted by nicoledad
Cost was never involved in your original statement. I just never heard of 7 year olds making parental decisions. I certainly never would of asked my 7 year old for any input.

I'd have thought it was obvious, but apparently it needs saying: there's a huge difference between "7 year olds making parental decisions" and "7 year olds having a voice and being heard."

I certainly would never have made a parental decision without at least hearing what my 7yo had to say about it.


I'd have been extremely foolhardy to try to do that to my particular 7yo, speaking frankly.

No, she doesn't "make all her own decision" even now, at 14. But she makes more of them than she did at 7, and even then she made more of them than she had at 3.

I figured that there had been discussion about the field trip, which the OP was not sharing the specific details of, and which I'm not really entitled to anyway. Having lived through this age with a PG child, and the seven years past it, as well... I'll say this much: I think it's a wise parent that rewards logical and rational argumentation in such children at seven. That was always our condition for having one's voice heard-- provide me with REASONS, not whining, and be prepared to back your opinion just as I'd ask another adult to. Do that, and your opinion counts for a lot more.

Just because the school thinks a field trip is a good idea doesn't mean that they are more RIGHT about that than the child who thinks that it is not.


Schrödinger's cat walks into a bar. And doesn't.