The Ongoing Parental Debate: What freedoms/responsibilities are age-appropriate for our kids?

How much freedom should we give our kids to do things like walking the dog around the block by themselves? How young is too young? Was this mom making a mistake or was she teaching her daughter how to be watchful and responsible?

These questions and so many others filled my head as I thought about this. My first thought was that this mother was totally in the right, and this whole fiasco was just a huge misunderstanding and a terribly unfortunate circumstance for this mother and child. On the other hand, I don’t fault the neighbor for looking out for the little girl’s best interest–although it would have been so much better if she had consulted the mother about her concern first. But, more than anything, I was honestly shocked at wide spectrum of parent responses over this one story.