Waiting on the sledding party

Well I am up way too late, hanging out waiting for the girls to get back from sledding. My older son (24) called at about 11:30 PM and offered to take my 14 yo and her two friends (who were having a sleep over at our house) out to the park to go sledding. With some trepidation I agreed, mostly I am concerned about injuries, since I am not the mother of the 2 friends and it was a little late to call and ask permission.

But with plenty of bundling, mismatched gloves and all, and lots of admonishments both to the younger girls and the older supervising male I let them go. I am trying hard not to be too restrictive and controlling of my 14 yo just because I know all the bad things that could happen out in the world. My older boys feel strongly that I shelter her too much. And she is such a good kid that I need to acknowledge how responsible she is and give her more privileges. It is just hard to trust the world with my baby.

Despite the fact that I feel strongly about the equality of men and women and have definite feminist leanings, I realize that I let my boys do so much more independently than I am comfortable letting my daughter do. Some of that is just reality. She was stalked briefly by a pervert neighbor who still lives behind us and who still gives us the creeps, the cops are aware and watching him. And girls seem more vulnerable in our unsafe world than boys. It is also true that my boys always had each other to do stuff with, so that when I let them have some independence they were doing it together and she does not have a built-in companion as her direct older siblings are not capable of making good decisions on their parts or on hers, and lead pretty restricted lives due to their behaviors and choices. Nonetheless I am trying to be more open to opportunities for her to safely get out from under my wing and test her own wings a little.

They must be having fun because they have been gone longer than I credited them with being able to stand the cold. My daughter is an absolute wuss when it comes to being cold. I am hoping they get home soon so that I can go to bed, I am fighting off a major sinus headache, probably triggered by the storm front we have moving through. We have tons of beautiful glorious snow and I can't wait until morning when I am going to make a snow person even if the girls feel they are too old for such shenanigans.