This is only a phenomenon in the anglo-world. Kids are still allowed to be kids in the rest of the world (where they are much more mature and physiologically healthier than American kids).
Safetyism killed playtime
21–30 of 154 posts
Re: Safetyism killed playtime
#22I know the article focuses on the UK and what I'm about to state has little to do with the UK, but as a suburban US dad with three children I feel compelled to share that drivers are what keep me from feeling comfortable letting my seven and four year old play outside unsupervised.
I've seen so many incidents of (young?) drivers tearing through sleepy suburban streets at highway speeds here in Maryland that I specifically chose a house on a dead-end street full of retirees in order to lessen the danger of one of my children impulsively running into the street after a ball.
It's nuts. I grew up in an NJ suburb in the '90s and I don't have memories of insanity like what I've seen here.
Re: Safetyism killed playtime
#23Safetyism is a contributing cause, but children have far fewer siblings than they used to. This means it's harder to go outside semi-supervised, and parents are more protective of their kids because there are fewer of them. Differences in reproductive strategies result in differences of parental care.
How sound is this argument? It doesn’t pass my smell test as from what I recall 25+ years ago, some of my friends didn’t have siblings. Yet we ran around up until the street lights were on. Looking at people with children in my circles right now though, they would absolutely never let their kids do that.
Re: Safetyism killed playtime
#24My favorite toys, when I was a kid, were these sheet-metal rocketships and speedsters. They would have flint flywheels, and would emit a shower of sparks. Cut you to ribbons, and set things on fire -FUN. Also, I had a fully-operational steam engine that took Calcium Carbide rocks (acetylene source).
My dad taught us how to make bows from long bamboo garden canes and gardening string, then notched small garden canes with fire-hardened points to use as arrows.
We used to set up ramps on the road in our estate while it was still being built, using piles of sand and planks left behind by the builders. Then, we'd get some airtime on our BMXs. I still have a scar on my chin today from going over the handlebars.
Back garden fires were a regular occurrence as well. We'd be unsupervised, playing around with flaming sticks, or throwing things into the fire, such as aerosol cans.
None of this seemed to bother my parents.
Then, when my own son was about eleven, I taught him how to breathe fire. It was heavily supervised by me, and we practised with water for an hour until he had the technique down, and I let him have a go with paraffin. He did it perfectly. I recorded it.
I showed the video to my dad, and he was extremely angry that I had taught my son this, seemingly forgetting all the wild things he used to let us get away with when we were children.
I suppose my point is that this is not really a generational thing, but a societal one. Regardless of your generation, in modern society, all adults have a heightened perception of risks, real or imagined.
Re: Safetyism killed playtime
#25I broke 3 arms while I was a kid. I was lucky I didn't break a neck. I think safetyism is just fine.
I think think the argument is cut and dry as one might think. What's a few broken bones if you're stunted socially, independently, and creatively through regulation and rules. Exploring the new world with friends of your own age without adults putting you in their mental box makes you your own person. I think it's underappreciated what that enables.
Breaking a bone is a serious injury. It doesn’t always heal properly.
People jokingly say that kids bounce, but sometimes they don’t. It blows my mind that people treat broken bones in kids as not a serious injury.
Re: Safetyism killed playtime
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think think the argument is cut and dry as one might think. What's a few broken bones if you're stunted socially, independently, and creatively through regulation and rules. Exploring the new world with friends of your own age without adults putting you in their mental box makes you your own person. I think it's underappreciated what that enables.
Completely agree, the point of life isn't to reduce risk to zero - it's to make life wildly abundant and beautiful. Joy and creativity should be prioritized heavily over safety. That doesn't mean you don't have safety as a priority, it just means joy should factor more heavily into the equation. I doubt much progress and improvement would be made simply by increasing lifespan. Comparatively, if you inspire a generati…
> simply by increasing lifespan
To this point, there is a growing push to consider “healthspan” rather than lifespan in terms of medical outcomes. It turns out that being alive hooked up to tubes confined to a bed isn’t all that great.
Re: Safetyism killed playtime
#27I've been volunteer teaching at my daughter's preschool every other week. Getting this balance right is tricky and it's interesting to see how teachers and other parents at the school approach it.
My inclination is to be pretty laissez faire, partly because I believe in letting kids learn things on their own as much as possible even if that involves some bruises and scrapes, and partly because it's just easier to let 3 and 4 year olds do what they want. I really don't enjoy having any kind of confrontation with someone else's kid, so in the first place I try not to interfere unless it really seems necessary. If I do decide I need to stop them, I first try telling them to stop. This sometimes works, depending on the kid and situation, but often they just ignore it. At that point, I usually just give up and find an actual teacher, since they have no qualms about laying down the law when needed.
The interesting part is how different people's instincts are, and how differently they approach this question. I see some parents who handle things similarly to me, but there are others who are a lot more cautious and strict and don't hesitate to get involved.
The teachers advise volunteering parents to stop anything that makes them feel uncomfortable, and I think that's what is really tricky about all this. There's often not time to think things over so you have to decide in the moment based on your instincts. The teachers know that each parent will handle things differently, and they're ok with that. They would rather have a parent go with their gut and possibly overdo it than second-guess themselves, and I think that's the right approach. If I'm entrusting other adults to take care of my daughter, even if I know they're going to handle some things differently than I would, I'd prefer that they are acting decisively if something doesn't feel right to them.
Re: Safetyism killed playtime
#28I know the article focuses on the UK and what I'm about to state has little to do with the UK, but as a suburban US dad with three children I feel compelled to share that drivers are what keep me from feeling comfortable letting my seven and four year old play outside unsupervised. I've seen so many incidents of (young?) drivers tearing through sleepy suburban streets at highway speeds here in Maryland that I specifi…
Ditto. It’s not the breathless hysteria about child abduction or (conversely) busybody neighbors calling the cops on unaccompanied minors that keep my kids inside. It’s the insane drivers in 4 ton lifted pickups and the town’s refusal to lower the speed limit, or even post “Children Playing” signs that does it.
Re: Safetyism killed playtime
#29As a future parent, this is something that really concerns me.
On the one hand I want to be a good parent and protect my (future) children, but on the other hand I don't want to be over-protective. I feel like it's a pretty hard balance to strike these days.
Re: Safetyism killed playtime
#30I don't think I get the point. Creative, unstructured play and safety aren't mutually exclusive. A kid doesn't need to get a third degree burn or break an arm to "play better", and those are mostly avoidable risks. The article also missed on developing this piece of information: > In urbanised environments, where land is at an all-time premium, finding a place to run around can be a challenge. One in eight children d…
Your last paragraph is kind of the whole point - the (predictable) outcome of requiring a playground to be safe results in a lack of places for creative unstructured play, as playgrounds either prohibit it or get shut down.