Foster a child’s — time alone to invent, freedom to make mud puddles, allow innovation to make toys from sticks, encourage a child’s to use his/her imagination, let a child ride imaginary horses, allow a kid to skin a knee or elbow... LEAVE THEM ALONE...
Helmets for kids riding bikes - disgusting !!! ... I rode a bicycle from age 5 to age 16 or beyond... ALL my friends did the same... we had unsafe bikes by today’s standards ‘coaster brakes’ for heavens sake.... YET not a single playmate I knew or even heard of had a serious injury in all those years. Today we have Stupid laws - stupid parents.
And those stick shifts rocked!
It’s a tough thing. I always thought bicycle helmets were for weenies growing up.. But we know a lot more about head injury now than we did then. A fall off a bike can really be life-altering.
We also see predators around every corner, telling kids not to talk to anyone who doesn’t show them eight forms of government identification (as if that’s assuring!).. But then again, there are real dangers out there.
What is a parent to do? Parents of earlier generations did not have the terrorizing information bombarding them from every corner.
Forget the head injuries and predators, lets talk about the dangers of substandard education? What happens when you move into a less-than-the-top school district? What kind of fate are you consigning your child to? What if they don’t excel in Honors classes? Then they won’t do well in AP classes, and do you know how that will look to colleges? And if they don’t get into a good college then they won’t be ensured a good job or a spot at a top graduate program. And if they don’t get either of those, they might as well hop on a train and live a hobo’s life...
That’s the attitude that’s the real widespread problem, not the treehouse broadband or swing-set-phobia or “Kinderkords.”
I had a similar experience. At the age of nine, I was riding my Derby bike to destinations more than a mile away from my home in suburban Los Angeles--something that would be unthinkable today. All of my acquaintances rode bikes as well, and none were ever involved in an accident or hurt in any way.