Earlier quoted context omitted.
We let ours play outside plenty, and there are quite a few other kids out. Does seem to be neighborhood-dependent, though, all kinda have their own culture. Our current one's less free-range than the last, which had big ol' gangs of kids with large age-ranges roaming around, and was great. We are fairly worried about 1) eventually having some kind of encounter with child protective services—which will likely end up f…
> Odds very low they'll all make it to 18 without at least one broken bone. I consider broken bones to be an integral part of childhood. Well, for boys anyway. If you make it to 18 without a broken bone, you probably should have spent more time outside.
I never broke a bone as a kid, and not only spent half my youth outdoors but was a daredevil.
Summer: Tree climbing, as high as 50'. Constant bike riding on and off road, skateboarding, go carts, dirt-bikes (hill climbs, jumps), jungle gym, stilts, pogo sticks, trampolines, swings, water-skiing, touch football, street hockey, basketball, and soccer.
Winter: Flexible flyer sledding on steep hills with frequent collisions and wipe-outs (that was half the fun), snowmobiles, tubing, skiing, skitching (when streets are snowy/icy you hold on to a car's bumper and hitch a ride)
One of my own kids has the daredevil streak also and built huge jumps for bikes in summer and snowboards in winter. They'd jump over cars.
No broken bones (lacerations, bruises, sprains however)
On the other hand, I saw a kid break his leg at 2 mph by falling off his bike against a curb.