Forget magic tricks and fireworks. Nothing truly amazes a first grader more than the line, “When I was your age, I rode my bike around our neighborhood by myself.”

MJ stared at me with awe.

“Oh, you did not!”

“I did! And your Aunt Bridget and I would walk to the community pool when we were seven and stay there all day without our parents!”

“Tell me more! Tell me more!” she squealed, clapping her hands in glee the way I do when I read a juicy blind item on the Hollywood gossip sites.

It’s hard for any first grader to fathom – the freedom we had just 30 years ago. I know it’s been hotly debated between the helicopter mom and the free range parent – how much freedom do we give a child who has demonstrated she can handle herself? And as MJ grows older and requests more independence, I won’t deny that at times it’s been hard to hold on to my free range philosophy.

French President Francois Hollande made headlines recently when he proposed a total ban on homework as part of his effort to reform France’s educational system. In related news, I am now officially moving to the land of crusty baguettes and smelly cheese.

Halloween used to be so easy. When I was seven my Mom made me a lion costume that I wore every year until I was twenty three. Some years we'd pair it with a princess crown or cowboy boots to give me a little variety, but there was never any discussion about what I was going to be.

There are definitely some perks to growing up in a big city. Shopping malls, an abundance of cultural activities, a clean genetic pool... all pluses.

Now that we’re about to reach our upper-30’s, Mr. P and I are striving to be healthier, to be those people that say, “I feel better at 3 than I did at 25!” In truth, I do feel better than 25-year-old me,  probably because I’m not downing cigarette-laced Cosmopolitans every night and eating Del Taco at 2 a.m.

Most of us have looked back at our teenage selves and wished for a time warp to swallow a decade or so of awkwardness and insecurity. I can certainly think of some excruciating memories — and I was lucky to have had a close circle of equally nerdy girlfriends to buffer the worst of the social pressures.

Yet another report telling parents how they're screwing up their kids' development came out this past week, and I'm not too big a person to admit I am 100% guilty of their findings.