We fill our kids schedules with classes and team sports, make them wear bike helmets and football pads to play on anything with wheels. Why are we sheltering our kids so much today and what from? Is the world really so different? Of course we want our kids to be safe. But maybe we are limiting exploration and free play a little too much. It's time to rethink some of our restrictions...
Read 50 Dangerous Things (You should let your children do) by Gever Tulley
In Jean Liedloff's book, The Continuum Concept, she reflects on time spend living with Stone Age Indians in South America. She observed that without boundaries although there were many dangers like pits, fire, knives, etc. Babies quickly learn to avoid such literal pitfalls and young children are taught and trusted to use what we would consider dangerous tools, safely.
My father said he always knew when my brother had gotten into things in the garage (Uh hum.. fireworks)... but he felt letting him have the freedom to explore that a bit kept him from getting into bigger trouble.
Awsumb's Uncle sent him a fancy pocket knife for his birthday when he was 8... although we had all the safety talks and demos... it still took him getting a small cut while he was working on something alone one day for him to learn the full lesson...
OK, So I am not ready to let my 9 year old take the subway alone in NYC... But, I did let my son cook his own breakfast in the toaster oven this morning...
Read my review of Nurture Shock
What do you remember doing that you would never let your kids do today?
What things do you think we need to let our kids do again?
1 comments:
Despite some bad publicity, the NYC subway system really is pretty safe. The worst thing about it is being crammed in cheek by jowl with commuters, some of whom inevitably have the flu. (While I was there, I couldn't help thinking of an OCD Subway Brigade, marching through and using hand sanitizer and Lysol on every seat and grab bar in sight. Made me smile.)
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