Strict?

My son was upset today. My nerdy love doesn't have much of a social life for a soon to be 11yr. I'm a little OK with it. Only because he has always been more of the loner since he was able to walk. It may be due to being a only child till he was 7 or he just may not care for the super social scene. Well today he wanted to go to a friends house. The kid gave him his address and told him to go over. Well I had to say no. 1. I can't take my kid to a house of a child who's parents I don't know. 2. He had no phone number for me to call to at least talk to the mom to check if it was OK. I explained to him I needed to speak to his friends mom or dad first before I could just take him. Of course he was very upset and totally didn't understand my reason for not taking him. Thanks to my big brother I will always be super paranoid and cautious of who's home my children go to.

When my 40 yr old big brother was in middle school he had a very good friend who's house he was suppose to go to on a Friday night. For one reason or another my parents didn't let him. When he went to school the following Monday his other friends asked him if he heard what happened to his friend who's house he was suppose to go spend the night at. My brother said no so they broke the news to him. The friend, and mother had been murdered by the boys father who kid himself as well that night. How would it have been if my brother would have been there? Odds are I may have never had the chance to meet him if he had been there since this was before I was born. There are millions of crazy things in this world. You can only hope and pray that every time your babies leave the house everything will be perfectly fine and they will return home safely.

Was I being to strict by not letting him go? Maybe. But I think I was right given that I don't know these people. I wouldn't even let my son walk down the street by himself or stay home alone which is bad in a way because I'm not giving him a little bit of Independence. As a mother it's hard to let your babies be out of your sight. I pretty much only trust him to be with FAMILY.  I still remember the first day he was born as soon as I held him I said "now I totally understand why my parents where so strict". My dear little man I have to learn to give him a little more independence.