Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5

Original poster

To wonder why people let their DC play with sticks?

123 replies

ladyandthechocolate · 27/10/2013 06:10

My DS1 and 2 are 3.5 and have a few good friends who they play with a lot in the park before and after preschool. I am friends with their parents too. Most days, two children in particular turn up with sticks that they proceed to run around and play fight with (until I take them away like the total spoilsport I am!).

I remember when I was little, a child being blinded by a stick and it has stuck with me ever since. Losing a eye is a terrible thing but most parents seem a bit blasé about the issue or else it just hasn't occurred to them that it could happen.

Maybe I'm being a bit paranoid? I don't let mine play with sticks and I don't want them being put at risk by others doing so as well.

OP posts:

LittleRobots · 27/10/2013 06:14

Mine always pick up a stick! Not been fighting with them yet, but drawing on the dirt usually, making sounds on railings or similar, or just comforting to hold.

We love our sticks. I agree I'd be worried if they were near faces but playing with sticks is part of being outdoors (I do remember a London friend telling her toddler not to hug trees or pick up leaves! )

elQuintoConyo · 27/10/2013 06:14

A child can put its eye out on a lot of things.

bragmatic · 27/10/2013 06:18

I think you are being a bit paranoid. I don't deny that there have been serious stick injuries in the history of children playing with them but chances are very minimal.

If you don't want to let your kids play with sticks, fine. But don't take them off my children, because I'm OK with it.

MissMarplesBloomers · 27/10/2013 06:18

A finger can put an eye out!

Teach them to be risk aware not risk averse, or they'll never learn to judge for themselves safely.

wigglesrock · 27/10/2013 06:22

Mine play with sticks - mainly to use as wands, I remember carrying a stick around and pretending there were 2 dogs at the end of it . It doesnt bother me at all.

ScaryBeardyDeadyman · 27/10/2013 06:28

Sorry you had a bad stick incident, but sticks are the best toy ever. They can be so many things and show off the incredible imaginations that children have!

With a stick you can have an oar, a sword, a fireman's hose, a baseball bat, a rifle, a ski pole... The list is as long as your imagination allows.

Original poster

ladyandthechocolate · 27/10/2013 06:29

Actually bragmatic, if your child was playing with a stick and not endangering my DC I would have no cause to remove the stick. If however, they were jabbing it towards my DS's face with accompanying "hiiiya" sounds then I would.

OP posts:

SoupDragon · 27/10/2013 06:32

So it's gone from just "playing with sticks" to jabbing it on your child's face...?

There is a huge difference between the two but the fact is that the problem is the child's behaviour not the stick.

CreatureRetorts · 27/10/2013 06:32

I'd be the same as you if I'd seen that :(

I'm wary of sticks but let them play. However any sign of hitting or jabbing each other and the stick goes!

MistyB · 27/10/2013 06:34

In my experience, sticks are much more dangerous in the hands of children who are not used to them. I like the idea that sticks are a form of comfort. There is always a pile of special sticks outside our back door!

Rosa · 27/10/2013 06:34

Sticks are fine as long as they are not turned into fighting swords and used on nearby children. I mean now would you play pooh sticks if they were banned??

elQuintoConyo · 27/10/2013 06:35

And if they were jabbng a toy truck towards your ds's face with accompanying 'hiiiiya' sounds?

I watch out for my dc, whether it be stick, truck, football,swing or Barbie - damn those things a sharp!

Not going to stop DS playing with sticks anytime soon, although he's not quite 2, so I am very careful what he does with it and not around others he's more likely to go for the entire branch

ScabbyOozingCarbuncle · 27/10/2013 06:35

All sorts of accidents haopen, but that is just what they are. You cant stop life just in case!

TEErickOrTEEreat · 27/10/2013 06:39

And why can't you say "stop pointing it near the face" rather than take the stick away?

Yes, even to other people's children.

Original poster

ladyandthechocolate · 27/10/2013 06:43

I said in my OP that there was play fighting and that's what I was referring to with the 'jabbing'.
I have no issue with sticks being used sensibly but in the hands of a 3.5 year old child who is playing with friends I don't think it's appropriate.
Agree that eye injuries can happen in many other situations but I feel that the stick + running/fighting combination is unwise.

OP posts:

claraschu · 27/10/2013 06:44

Look at this beautiful book. It is called The Stick Book, and is packed with great ideas of wonderful ways to play with a stick: www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=the+stick+book&tag=googhydr-21&index=aps&hvadid=23560352672&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=1574097497734406058&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=e&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_644stzx75n_e

Of course children shouldn't hurt each other with sticks, but if you start banning every object which could potentially hurt someone, you can't play with sand, mud, rocks, pens, pencils, paintbrushes, musical instruments, and so forth and so on.

It is so important for children to experience the natural world; I hope you don't ban sticks forever. Also children need to learn to play safely with things like sticks, or you risk having children who are fascinated by the "forbidden fruit" but not familiar enough with it to play in a positive way.

UriGHOULer · 27/10/2013 06:45

Misty at "special sticks". We have those, they are a cut above (in what way, I'm not sure)

Agree with everyone, sticks don't jab kids, kids jab kids.

ScaryBeardyDeadyman · 27/10/2013 06:48

Next thing you know people will be telling us not to run with scissors!

claraschu · 27/10/2013 06:48

In your first post you say " I don't let mine play with sticks", so people are reacting to that.

I don't think people would have reacted so strongly if you had said you don't let you children play fight with sticks, as they are too young to control the point of a stick very well.

TheNumberfaker · 27/10/2013 06:51

but the fact is that the problem is the child's behaviour not the stick

^^ what SoupDragon said

bragmatic · 27/10/2013 06:52

So it's gone from just "playing with sticks" to jabbing it on your child's face...?

I know, right?

I actually had a little bet with myself that the next response was going to be something like that.

SoupDragon · 27/10/2013 06:53

I said in my OP that there was play fighting and that's what I was referring to with the 'jabbing'

Play fighting is not the same as jabbing a stick towards the face of another child. Tell them not to do it! How are they supposed to learn if no one bothers to tell them and just takes the stick away?

trice · 27/10/2013 06:53

When my two were little they were often whacked and hurt by other toddlers waving sticks. I think sticks are great in the hands of kids old enough to know the rules but dangerous in the hands of young wild toddlers.

Kids are terrible at risk assessment, adults need to step in.

LordPalmerston · 27/10/2013 06:54

Lol at trauma of sticks

trice · 27/10/2013 06:56

Just to add support to op. I am a stick intolerant parent In situations such as described.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5

Swipe left for the next trending thread