Process of Empowerment--Example from home

I attended my son's parent teacher conference this week and shared that when I ask to review his homework, he is becoming increasingly annoyed with me.   I also shared that I suspect that there is a part of him that in increasingly trying to express his own independence.  He turned 9 recently, so he is now spending short periods of time home alone for the first time, and also just celebrated his ninth birthday.   He has done well in school (not perfect, but very well) and I think has earned the right for my check ins to at least be less frequent.  Whether it is a child or an employee, it is important to recognize when they desire increasing amounts of autonomy....but these new found rights are based on performance.  In his case, he has done well in school, gets strong reports from his teachers, and has shown himself to be reliable.   For me it just hit home a little more intensely than in the workplace, since it was less about competencies and more about recognizing my intuition about what he might be feeling.