This article from the Wall Street Journal is very interesting. It's basic thesis is that in our drive to give kids a safer and safer environment, we have eliminated all risk and therefore, most outdoor fun! Bored kids sit inside all day and stare at some electronic media.
I have always been a proponent of letting kids have controlled risk in their lives. Are we supposed to send them off into the real world at 18 after having spent their entire lifetimes being coddled in a completely risk-free environment?
I remember the days, BEFORE CELL PHONES, when I was sent out to play with the neighborhood kids and told to come home when the street lights came on or when Davie's mother, with the tremedously loud whistle, called him home. Tim remembers being turned loose at Disneyland and being told only to meet up for dinner and when the park closed.
No parent wants to see their child hurt, but I don't want to raise a scared, dependent, risk-adverse child either.
Regan has developed a love for climbing trees, good for her. Maybe she'll reach the top like I did when I was five and looked down on the roof of my house hoping my mom didn't come out.
As I type, the girls and their friends are off riding their bikes to the neighborhood cupcake store.
It's a start.
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3 comments:
MMM...Cupcakes.
I remember making jumps for our bikes. We would have the younger kids lie (lay?) down between the ramps and see how many we could jump over. That's some good, clean fun right there.
Yes that was a great article, I remember the merry go round, the high dives, etc. Risk taking is what made it fun. Also rode gas powered go-karts on the street and flew gas powered model planes on the school yard, NEVER happen today
Dad
I remember just having to come home when the street lights came on. Everyone wants to say things have changed & the world is so cruel now, but really there has always been sin there are just more people on the planet. I for one have always been a bit daring so I try to let my kids have the same fun and all the scrapes and bumps that come with it.
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