He's a hilarious, warm, full of good ideas and doesn't need much behavioural oversight.

That doesn't mean I don't do mom things. I make his lunch and his dinner, take him to the pool and park, go to parent/teacher and IEP meeting, provide parental guidance for certain films and games, supervise his hygiene and nutrition, am there to offer 'helpful advice' about things. If the screen time is getting too much I kick him off and find something else for us to do. When he's out of line, which is rare, I'm there to nudge him back to the other side.

But he's so smart and honestly mature, he's easy to get on with and talk to. We joke, we play, I treat him more or less like an equal. "Can you please help me with this chore? Would you like to go for a walk? What do you want to do today? What are your feelings on this?"

I know that conventional parenting wisdom is to be a parent, not a friend. But I feel like we are honestly both. I've never been comfortable being an authoritarian parent. It's just not my style. Nor am I a crunchy 'attachment' style parent. I just kind of treat him like, okay, you have autonomy over most things, but some boundaries are non-negotiable. You WILL brush your teeth. You WILL get off the XBox when I say it's time. You WILL eat healthy snacks. But if you're too tired to brush them occasionally, give them an extra-good brushing tomorrow morning. Yes, you can have 10 more minutes on the XBox before we make snowflakes together. Fine, you can have a little more chocolate but after that, only healthy snacks. And that works really well for us. He's super capable of making good choices and generally I trust that. We are literally almost never in conflict.

So is being your child's friend a bad thing? What do you guys think?