{"id":25864,"date":"2026-05-28T17:56:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T17:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/25864\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T17:56:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T17:56:09","slug":"american-mom-in-berlin-learns-to-let-her-kid-roam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/25864\/","title":{"rendered":"American Mom in Berlin Learns to Let Her Kid Roam"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"storyParagraph\">&#13;<br \/>\n                                        An American mom living in Berlin is learning to loosen the reins on her school-age son\u2014and watching him rise to the occasion. Writing for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/parenting-anxiety-kids-walking-to-school-independently-2026-5\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Business Insider<\/a>, Kate Chrisman describes finally letting her third-grader walk the 15 minutes to school alone, something many German kids start doing a year or more earlier, to the bafflement of parents who ask, &#8220;Why so late?&#8221; Chrisman details how local norms and infrastructure\u2014walkable cities with safe transit, for example\u2014make independent kid commutes feel routine, grating against what is considered normal in the US.&#13;\n                                    <\/p>\n<p class=\"storyParagraph\">&#13;<br \/>\n                                        &#8220;Not knowing exactly where my child was\u2014even for a 15-minute walk\u2014made me anxious,&#8221; Chrisman admits. But she trained her son in directions and crosswalks, and eased her anxiety by getting him a smartwatch that could confirm his arrival at school. The change not only made juggling the family schedule easier, but his solo walk translated into bigger shifts: preparing his own breakfast, packing his own snack, and coordinating after-school plans with friends. He has &#8220;a confidence he&#8217;s earned by doing things on his own,&#8221; Chrisman writes. &#8220;And I&#8217;ve come to see that he&#8217;s more capable than I gave him credit for.&#8221; For the full, on-the-ground look at German-style independence, read Chrisman&#8217;s piece <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/parenting-anxiety-kids-walking-to-school-independently-2026-5\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.&#13;\n                                    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; An American mom living in Berlin is learning to loosen the reins on her school-age son\u2014and watching&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25865,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[18,642,5,10133,26592,26593],"class_list":["post-25864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-berlin","tag-berlin","tag-children","tag-germany","tag-independence","tag-parenting","tag-smartwatch"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}