Why I Let My 9-Year-Old Ride the Subway Alone

Having no kids myself, I can't imagine how protective, or overprotective, I might be of my own offspring. But it certainly seems, in recent years, more and more acceptable to take overprotectiveness to (what used to be) the extreme. Of course, as with many trends, there seems to be a backlash, or at least a vocal minority who are quite okay with letting their kids lose and then find themselves.