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When I go to WalMart, my three-year-old is in the seat of the cart, and my five-year-old is in the basket.

My Wife gets the stuff we came for in the second cart.

WalMart's just too crazy to hope that someone won't plow a cart into my Sons from around a corner. Let all the other kids run rampant, I'll keep mine safe in their little buggy with me.

At my Wal-Mart in Winston-Salem, NC, I can walk in at 2:00 AM and see several sets of parents (95% of the time, young black parents) or single mothers hauling around their young child. Most of them carry the child, some place it in the cart, and almost never do they let them walk around.

If they don't have room in their schedule to drag their kid grocery shopping at any time other than 2:00 AM, maybe their kid being up at all hours of the night isn't their biggest problem right now.

When I go to WalMart, my three-year-old is in the seat of the cart, and my five-year-old is in the basket.

My Wife gets the stuff we came for in the second cart.

This is EXACTLY how we did things when my kids were little. When my kids got older, I used that as an excuse to stay at home with the kids and let my wife go by herself (she actually ENJOYS Walmart - i think it might be a mental illness).

That being said, we've always given our kids a little more responsibility (and earned freedom) than their over-protected friends. This would manifest itself in very small ways when they were younger - including letting them get out of the cart within our site. So far, they're still alive, and MUCH more mature than their friends.

Being a father, I've viewed my role as slowly preparing them to no longer need me, starting from Toddler-hood. I've always been there to bail them out (and teach a lesson), and as they get older I bail them out less and let them feel the consequences of bad decisions. Yes, they could get hurt, but they could also get hurt with me hovering over them. I have more to say on this subject, but I don't want to come off as an Uber-parent (from the other end). Sorry if I have. To each his own.