A good old fashioned debate. How safe is too safe when it comes to children's play? Two mothers sound off in the Spring issue of Brain, Child.
Jessica Francis Kane wonders if, "By trying to protect [our children] from everything, we're handicapping them"?
While Andrea Schmidt feels, "People make bad decisions, get distracted, simply don't think, and the safety equipment protects my girls from the consequences of these situations."
I think we're going a bit overboard with all the safety gear. There seem to be so many products designed to save us the inconvenience of doing any actual parenting, that one begins to wonder where to draw the lines. While keeping our children safe IS a primary concern....life does have its little bumps and we all have to learn to deal with them sooner or later.
I wonder if my own mother had any of these concers when I was jumping my BMX bike into a buddies swimming pool?
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schools in new jersey have banned the game "tag" from being played during recess for safety reasons. i think that alone should set off alarm bells (pun intended) about the insanity level of safety precautions. seriously, it's like the safety industrial complex now needs to create more and more fear in people about their children's well-being to make money from misplaced anxiety. yay culture of fear!
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My uncle and I were laughing the other day while I was strapping my son into his carseat. He wondered how any of us (my cousins and I) survived without all the fancy carseats and other equipment of today. The seatbelt of my 1970s childhood was my mother's arm slapping me back against the front seat on a quick stop. But what really gets me is all the germ phobes I see in the grocery store placing their children in a special fabric covered shopping cart seat that they bring with them. It is like the mothers are channeling Howard Hughes in the Whole Foods!
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