Surely children can learn to become independent adults without having to be exposed to dangers (I?m thinking mostly of traffic here) Traffic has increased massively since the 1960s/70s Does Mr O?Farrell have some evidence to prove that not allowing children out to play all day and not letting them hurt themselves in the play park is actually detrimental to our children?s development?
.Children are capable of hurting themselves in the simplest of settings because children are naturally exuberant, clumsy, enjoy fooling around, tend to have their mind on other things. Children have a lot of accidents. I don?t see why it?s a problem to help to prevent these accidents I.e. the wood chippings that are laid down in play parks instead of concrete.
We put stair gates up to stop DD falling down the stairs. She didn?t need to fall down the stairs to learn about the danger of falling down the stairs, she just got to an age where certain capabilities kicked in and she knows to take care and is able to take care.
I don?t see why a child needs to get hurt to learn that they need to take care in a situation. They?re capable of learning and knowing that the whole world is not made of wood chippings to cushion their fall!
People sometimes ascribe too much nostalgia to their 1970s childhood. Our children will have their own nostalgia to recall. Our children will likely look back on ball pits nostalgically and view the idea of concrete play parks like we now view not using a seatbelt in a car. Anyway, the filth of ball pits are a useful way to counterbalance all that anti-bacterial spray.
I was a 70s child and I remember being let out to play for an afternoon or morning without having to ?check in? with mum but I also remember family walks to the countryside, beach or swimming pool, reading at home in my room, playing in the back garden with my friends. I also remember breaching the freedoms I was allowed on many an occasion. Give a child an inch and they take a mile. This ?freedom? of the 70s child we speak of is just one element of our childhood and I don?t believe it is necessary to ?set-free? your school aged child to help them grow into independent responsible adults.
I do however agree that children should not be molly-coddled but to me that is not about letting them play with the traffic it is about letting them get dirty and expecting them to do up their own coat