Wanting my boy to grow up in a H&S free world

[Ryoko]

went for a walk in the park the other day and noticed things, like kids around 10 out cycling with parents, children who looked about 8 on pathetic climbing frames with mum holding their hand, parents standing around watching kids like hawks, there was more parents in the play ground then kids.

and they are being so over bloody protective about such shit things to be honest, the climbing frames are pathetic, the slides are a joke etc compared to when I was a kid and it's all safe woodchips under em so what are they so worried about.

It just took me back to my youth it did, climbing up two story tall steel climbing frames, with concrete underneath em, surfing on the rocking horse and those massive ski jump style slides where you used to fly off the end and land in the bin that was all ways strategically placed. plus when I had a bike I was at least 3 miles away from my family at all times.

AIBU to wonder if all this cotton wool wrapping is going to turn em all into little pansies in later life?

The council doesn't want to get sued because a child falls and cracks their skull open/dies, yes it happens which is why they stopped putting concerete under climbing frames. I don't think any parent should worry about things being made safer for their kids. I know two kids who were knocked of their bikes and killed when I was young so I don't think parents are too overprotective staying with their kids while they cycle their bikes.

Agree with notpartof getting the right balance is important with children.

Also agree with Grimma there are plenty of choices which don't involve the park for risky gumption building adventure for kids.

Some parents are overprotective but who knows, some may have good reason to be worried due to their own experiences.

And if you're that irritated by these pathetic overprotective parents fussing around their little pansies over shit things then go elsewhere.

sounds like you're getting way too fussed about how other people are bringing up their kids.

I was soundly criticised on MN once for admitting that I sit and read a book & drink coffee in blissful ignorance whilst my DS charged about in an indoor play centre unsupervised and ...errm... playing. Apparently, I was being irresponsible... LOL! So you can't win OP. Might as well do your own thing and let others do theirs.

I notice it often tends to be the sort of people who talk about 'health and safety gorn mad' who on the other hand would be the first to call one of those shyster legal firms you see advertised on ITV2 and try to sue the council should their DC come off their bike on a dodgy bit of pavement.

So yes, YABU. Health and Safety regulations are not in place for the amusement of government, but to ensure health and safety.

Once upon a time, I knew a lovely lady who had an artificial leg. I initially assumed it had been a car, or the Blitz.

It had not. She'd had an accident on a slide as a child.

I really, really like safe playground equipment, got it?

DH and I are civil engineers, we spend a lot of time on construction sites - the workplace most likely to kill its workers. I want DS to grow up in a H&S conscious world, so that DH and I are likely to come home to him.

I just think it's not healthy, you need to experience things, people can tell you stuff a million times but it means nothing until you have experienced something then you think twice ,and it makes you a better person in later life.

How gullible are all the cotton wool kids going to be when they get out on there own, without ever experiencing life without someone holding their hand?.

we live in a society of someone else will do it, someone else will pick us up when we are down and out, someone else will pay for what I want now etc. I just see it as getting worse if kids aren't allowed to experience life fully, half em don't even look when crossing the road.

Biekrunski I was thinking of a programme I saw about the construction of the Forth Bridge in the 1890s. No ropes or harnesses or hard hats .

Susue Spot the Daily Mail reader!? Kids are safer from abduction, murder, all the really horrible things basically, than they ever have been. Its simply that media coverage of these terrible incidents has increased about 100-fold. Just because people become more worried about something, it doesn't mean they're more at risk.

Re playgrounds, as far as I can see, todays playgrounds are absolutely fantastic to the ones of the early '80s that I had to play in. Given the choice of falling onto concrete or rubber, I'm fairly sure that I know what I'd have chosen as man or boy. Alos worth considering that most modern playgrounds are actually designed to help kids take risks. The rope climbing frames for e.g. were bought in for this reason - they are much taller than frames ever used to be, encouraging the kids to go higher, but are relatively safe even if a child falls from the top because of their design.

Re everything being smaller in playgrounds these days: are you sure you just haven't got a bit taller since you were playing in them?

Should add that re the helicopter parenting, well, its not my style but I'm just inclined to give those parents the benefit of the doubt. They have the right to choose how to bring up their own kids.

I fell off a really high climbing frame as a kid, onto the normal concrete floor. Got a sever concussion & needed stitches. 2 classmates broke their legs. My sister split her chin open. I think this is probably why they make parks safer!

YADBU

My Gran's 4 yo cousin died after falling off a swing onto concrete.

and btw, the cushioned floors under climbing frames now dont prevent all injuries, my DS broke his arm after falling 5 ft onto one of those surfaces

Ryoko - what you're talking about really has nothing to do with genuine Health & Safety concerns. It's about parents being so protective of children that they don't allow them to develop skills to cope with anything.

And yes I agree that's a problem - but it has no connection to whether the climbing frame has concrete, tarmac, rubber, wood chip or a huge foam mat under it. It has to do with letting your child climb it, once you've taken a quick look to decide it is not in terrible condition, doesn't have a pile of broken glass under it, etc.

Ryoko - I totally agree with you.

Obviously it better to have a rubberised surface rather than concrete but isn't that due to advances in technology as much as specifically H&S.

I live in a fairly rural area with not too much traffic and I'm happy for my DCs to go out on their bikes to friends houses or the local park and I'm not alone.

My personal bete noire is the assumption on MN that peadophiles are everywhere - they are not. Car accidents are much more statistically likely. I feel sorry for the generation of children being brought up to fear any adult they don't know - its madness.

i would like to live in an acrimnim free world but I guess i wnfn

The thing about a bad guy round every corner, you could spend your life not letting your kid out and expecting them to be back by 8pm, driving them everywhere (like DPs parents, he never even used public transport until he met me and had no idea where anywhere was at the age of 23), but when they finally get out and be on their own they could just as easily find themselves saying the wrong thing to someone in a pub (because they are not used to that kind of situation) and getting shanked, or raped by a cab driver because they have had no experiences before to make them more wary or more understanding/alert of a potential bad situation.

I think it's only common sense to have a soft underlay flooring in playgrounds.

Go to Bewilderwood in Norfolk if you want some seriously gnarley high slides for your young child (they seriously scare me).

At least there were people in the playground, most playgrounds are deserted nowadays because parents don't have time or inclination to let their DC go.

In the town where I live 8yr olds run feral, including cycling around town with older siblings (on busy roads and all). I am more in the YANBU camp, btw, although we may not agree on all specifics.

I'm more het up on the idea that you have to document every aspect of your attempts to ensure H&S (whether or not you actually ensure safety is almost irrelevant) as well as having to produce documents and policies and procedures on maintaining confidentiality nowadays, as though documents replace common sense and we aren't social species who deserve some leeway in needing to talk about aspects of our lives.

DS got scolded by another child for saying "Hello" to a stranger yesterday (DS was with another group of children walking on the common 150m ahead of us). Just "Hello", nothing else.

I thought... wouldn't it be rude if I didn't acknowledge a passer by in that context? Why is a group of children allowed to be rude in the name of his safety? And we wonder why so many people think the Youth of today are all Thugs-in-the-Making.

Their safety, even, oops!

8 year olds on climbing frames holding onto mum's hand? Not sure I believe that.

Well it wasn't what I'd really call a climbing frame but it was a 5 foot thing with a little bridge and some climbing bits on it.

YABU. These families were having fun together. You said there were kids who loked about 8 on climbing frames with Mums ho;ding thier hands. First of all how do you know they were 8
they might have been youinger.

also DD3 is dyspraxic and at 8 years old she did not have very good co-ordination, She would have fallen if someone didn't hold her hand,

YANBU...I don't want my kids to be healthy or safe either....hang on a minute, I do!

Ridiculous OP.

The ideal antidote is gymnastics.Get your 5 yo cartwheeling on a 4 inch wide beam and doing somersaults in the air off the trampette.

I like the H and S surfaces on playparks ..it meant I could sit on the bench and let them get on with it