My Son, Vincent

My son, Vincent, is seven going on eight. He is a sharp kid who insists on doing things his way and on his own time. Since the day he turned two, he started developing a habit of structure: clothes in his closet needing to be color-coded, his toy cars had to be lined up by a certain size and shape, he demanded his plate to be much larger than average in order to avoid the different foods from touching each other.
However, with this unique transition from seven to eight, I have noticed lately that his habits have started to shift based on his perception of “growing up.” Vincent is starting to understand that he has to start doing things on his own more frequently that may disrupt his routine. The other day I asked him to take out the trash for the first time by himself- he was terrified. Vincent knows the process of taking the bag out of the trash bin and tieing the bag together, and he has seen me throw away the garbage several times, but this time he was asked to do it himself. After my request came several concerning questions from my seven-year-old; the most entertaining was, “Dad, the garbage dumpster is miles from my house (FYI- the garbage dumpster is 20 feet behind our suburban home), what if I get lost?”. I replied, “if you get lost, have fun on the adventure.”
With much anticipation, Vincent returned home three minutes later as a new, more confident person. I asked how it went, and he replied, “Dad, I did it… all by myself, I did it”.