From Why I let my 9-year-old ride the subway alone:
“How would you have felt if he didn’t come home?” a New Jersey mom of four, Vicki Garfinkle, asked.
Guess what, Ms. Garfinkle: I’d have been devastated. But would that just prove that no mom should ever let her child ride the subway alone?
No. It would just be one more awful but extremely rare example of random violence, the kind that hyper parents cite as proof that every day in every way our children are more and more vulnerable.
…
The problem with this everything-is-dangerous outlook is that over-protectiveness is a danger in and of itself. A child who thinks he can’t do anything on his own eventually can’t.
UPDATE: Lenore Skenazy has a blog, check it out: Free Range Kids
Matt Marks Music 
i remember when you were like 2, you used to open the screen door & wander the streets. now that’s too much. you little wanderer.
at the age of 9 though, an adventure in NYC sounds like fun! i love how her 9 year old son came home, ecstatic with independence. so cool.