What the title should really have been:
Dangerous Things You Let Your Kid Do.
Watch the video and find peace at last. They had me until the kid started driving. Ken also sent me a link to the Free Range Kids blog, run by a deep thinking parent who is apparently trying to find a way, like many of us, to balance the need to help kids stay safe and alive with the need for them to take steps toward independence (ie, some risks) in order to grow as people and solve their own problems and not be always nagging us about getting their precious Pokemon cards from the store for them or to please sew them something for their secret sister exchange. No. They need to do stuff on their own sometimes.
Some dangerous things I let my kids do recently;
1) Climb every tree in the park together, without me nearby to micromanage their footholds and feel panic at the unparalleled heights attained. They are going for a record, logging an experiment (tree species and climability) and enjoying childhood’s greatest pleasure in one swoop. Who am I to interfere? Can I require helmets? Strap a cellphone to their shins?
2) Act nuts at the skate park. They want to do ollies, ride half pipes. Other things that seem foolhardy. They have not built up the basic skills to even ride smoothly over a bump in the sidewalk. Oh well, off the the skatepark we went. This time helmets were part of the program….even though all of the big boy skaters had none. Anoif asked if she could walk next time to the skatepark without me. That requires even more trust in the universe and skaterboys. Apparently, it is unhip to have one’s mother in attendance while improving one’s balance on a rolling plank of wood in the presence of other like-minded revelers.
7 responses so far ↓
1 Todd Tyrtle // May 6, 2008 at 4:51 am
A friend of ours lets her 9yo go to the park by himself (often with toddler sister in tow), walk several blocks to the store, etc. Her trick? Two way family radios. We haven’t tried that yet ourselves but I like the idea.
2 Todd Tyrtle // May 6, 2008 at 5:05 am
Oh, and I just watched, and enjoyed, the TED Talk. I also think that the car thing was a bit much. I agree with him that it is mostly safe in a big parking lot. However, there is already too much reverence of the car as it is. We don’t need adding yet another car-oriented rite of passage or to make the car more of a power object than it already is.
3 Summer // May 6, 2008 at 12:46 pm
I refuse to accept that it will ever be unhip to have mom walk you to the skate park. If I promise to wear my Ramones shirt and not call him “sweety”, “honey”, or “sugar” I demand my right to still pretend to be cool. LOL
4 Wired For Noise // May 6, 2008 at 1:27 pm
Not A Dangerous Mom…
This morning was warm, cloudy, and had a cool breeze. Evan hopped on his bike, I loaded Trey into a stroller, and we took off across town to the park with the big train. Or “chooo-chooo” as Trey calls them. He’s a bit obsessed right n…
5 familyonbikes // May 7, 2008 at 4:04 pm
I totally agree that we need to let our kids do “dangerous” things - too often we try to protect them from everything that might, possibly, in some way, be dangerous. but they never learn to handle dangerous objects and live life that way.
Many people tell us we are crazy for taking our kids out on bicycles all around the world, but I feel the kids will do perfectly fine -a nd they will learn a ton in the process. We will be taking off next month to ride our bikes from Alaska to Argentina and we can’t wait to get on the road!!
You can read about our journey at http://www.familyonbikes.org
6 Maria // May 9, 2008 at 9:25 am
I”ve been thinking about this SO much lately. My dd is very much a home body and doesn’t have the desire to do “dangerous” things…but I keep encouraging her to. We just got a Tracphone and that makes us more comfortable and gets her independent too. I am still of two minds on the whole free range kids stuff….it’s great, however, to have that info. out there…
7 Lisa near Chicago // May 10, 2008 at 9:12 am
I wish mine was a little more daring!
I like the two-way radio thing; what a great idea.
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