[Sir_Cmpwn]

What's the worst that's going to happen? They'll dart out into the road and get hit by a car? That could happen just as easily if you're around and haven't taught them road safety, and if you have then you needn't be around. Abducted by a stranger? In reality this almost never happens, and you should teach your kids about safe ways to interact with strangers. Slip and bust open their knee? Teach them how to deal with wounds and they'll learn from the experience. Worse - a broken arm? Teach them how to get help when you're not around.

You can't be there 24/7, so you should prepare them for when you're not. And if they're prepared, you don't have to be there all the time. This is good for them and good for you.

[kbsletten]

My 2 year old is learning road safety and how to walk on the side of the street, but she's still safer when I'm with her because as an adult, I can understand things like getting hit by a car that I haven't experienced first-hand and I'm much less likely to get distracted by a cat or bird or whatever. Honestly on our street enough chickens and dogs and horses and tractors get out that I'm not actually worried about her getting hit, but she's also infatuated with irrigation canals and cannot swim, so I don't let her walk alone. I strongly disagree that this makes me a bad parent, despite your assertion that "she'll need to be autonomous someday, why not today?" Sure, she'll learn all this and more, but teaching takes time, and there's more to life than ensuring your kids could survive alone at the earliest possible age.

She still wants her mommy to kiss her knee when she scrapes it, my priority is not teaching her to clean and bandage a wound.

[LitFan]

As I said - I intend to teach them to function on their own. I treat them like people rather than kids as much as possible.

That doesn't address the legal concerns.