I let my 10-year-old twins roam free with no supervision on vacation. The week had a huge effect on them.

• I try not to be a helicopter parent at home, but there are times when my children need supervision.

• On a recent vacation, however, we felt safe enough to let them have almost total independence.

• We were on a private island, and the independence they had gave them immediate confidence.

These days, many parents favor a hands-on, highly supervised, and tightly scheduled parenting style. However, unlike some of my peers, I'm not much of a helicopter parent. My twins, now 10 years old, have been lucky to grow up in our flat, friendly area of urban Los Angeles, where they enjoy the freedom to pop into neighbors' houses unannounced and unsupervised.

Still, at their age, their freedom is limited by the realities of our big-city environment — and their parents' enforcement of rules meant to protect them from it. So they can't ride their bikes out of sight or walk alone from their school bus stop a few blocks from home; the dangers (vehicular and human) associated with our traffic-packed cross streets are just too risky. And that creates a ceiling for their development and independence.

But the calculus changed for all of us on our recent family vacation when we spent a week at The Brando, a resort built upon a private island in French Polynesia. (Yes, my kids enjoy a posh travel life thanks to my job.) Completely inaccessible to unauthorized visitors — just a speck in the Pacific Ocean 30 miles north of Tahiti — there are no cars on this island, or even on the greater atoll.

We let our kids roam free during our vacation

There are just 35 villas (only a few of which were occupied at the time of our stay), and a staff village, tucked into a paradisical coconut palm jungle reminiscent of Gilligan's Island. That's it. And protected as it is by a lagoon, the waters surrounding the island are completely placid at all times.

For all those reasons, the greatest risk I saw to my kids on the island was sunburn — and my husband and I made sure they were well-slathered with sunscreen to protect against the tropical rays. Beyond that, they were free to explore as they wished — alongside their sibling or, in fact, entirely alone, as they preferred at a given moment.

So with their own keys around their wrists in the form of rubber bracelets, off my kids went. They hopped on their bikes, provided by the resort during our stay, and hit the paved path around the island. As long as they remained on this path, there was no real way to get lost, so they were free to explore among the palm jungles and deserted beaches at will. By the water, they found and named hermit crabs and watched fish swim in the lagoon. On land, they identified plants, swung in hammocks, and got soaked by warm rain.

All this time, they were away from their otherwise omnipresent screens — and also away from their parents and the level of oversight they get at home. The whole vibe was more of a 1970s approach to hands-off parenting, and I watched it pay off quickly.

We saw a change in them

In just a week, without the close supervision they get at home, I saw a change in my kids. They exuded greater independence, curiosity, courage, and confidence. Their problem-solving skills improved in this short time, as did their sense of direction and navigational prowess.

Because they were on their own out there, and they didn't have us feet away at all times to lean on for assistance instinctively, they tended to solve their own small problems — like dusting off a scraped knee after toppling on a bike, and making sure to bring along the stuff they felt they needed (such as swim goggles and water bottles, which I'd normally take responsibility for stashing in my beach bag and divvying out when needed, mom style). It was a refreshing change — for all of us.

I also distinctly noticed a particular joy — a carefree affect I don't see from them as frequently in their highly scheduled and supervised normal lives.

Back home after our trip, we snapped back into our typical patterns — the standard buzzkill associated with post-vacation reentry. Resuming my typical level of parental oversight seemed necessary and appropriate given their still-young age, and amid the real and varied risks of our densely populated county, home to nearly 10 million people and a host of social, political, economic, and climate-related problems. (Soon after, widespread wildfires would decimate the city and close their school for nearly two weeks.)

But I like to think the independence and confidence they gained during their free-range week in paradise will continue to serve them well back in the real world. At any rate, it sure was fun — for all of us — while it lasted.

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