The lost art of play: No resilience without risk, says researcher

This is great stuff......until someone scrapes a knee and the parents launch a multi-million dollar lawsuit.....

Interesting read, thanks.

I try not to be an over-protective parent, but it can be pretty hard, especially when you have a friend or two who have lost a child in a freak accident or mishap.

Still, I'm a big believer in letting kids get scraped knees, bumps or even occasional bruises when they play as long as they aren't trying to do something too dangerous.

That's the key though. What constitutes 'too dangerous'?

One of the guys I race with has pins in his arm from mens' hockey league. Another is doing a 24 bike race next weekend. He's had several surgeries to his leg after injuring it in a dirt-bike accident. We all have burns, bruises and scars from working on cars, and racing them around a track. People get hurt racing all the time, usually not very seriously though. But the potential for death is always just in the background.

And we are adults, and this is how we play.

When I was a kid, cobbling together a flame thrower wasn't unheard of. Even made a small cannon out of cans that shot tennis balls using lighter fluid. Even made some primitive explosives once in a while. Sugar, saltpeter and carbon was a sign of a good time ahead! Throw in some aluminum or magnesium powder, and

I can't imagine letting my kids do anything less. But in today's climate, I'd probably be reported to Children's services or arrested.

It's sad that a study was needed kids need to explore and deal with there own consequences.

The school that the kids were in when we moved down here had a group trying to ban cartwheels and anything else that might cause injuries. One of them was trying to talk me around to the idea and said how would you feel if they broke a bone here then went on to imply that at home would be better more comforting. She really wasn't impressed when I said I broke bones at home and school all hurt and my mother had no simpathy. It might have helped if I hadn't had the brace for the broken collarbone removed Friday and then broke my thumb Sunday or the fact that I was moving my hand to watch it flop side to side on the way to the hospital

That's the key though. What constitutes 'too dangerous'?

One of the guys I race with has pins in his arm from mens' hockey league. Another is doing a 24 bike race next weekend. He's had several surgeries to his leg after injuring it in a dirt-bike accident. We all have burns, bruises and scars from working on cars, and racing them around a track. People get hurt racing all the time, usually not very seriously though. But the potential for death is always just in the background.

And we are adults, and this is how we play.

When I was a kid, cobbling together a flame thrower wasn't unheard of. Even made a small cannon out of cans that shot tennis balls using lighter fluid. Even made some primitive explosives once in a while. Sugar, saltpeter and carbon was a sign of a good time ahead! Throw in some aluminum or magnesium powder, and

I can't imagine letting my kids do anything less. But in today's climate, I'd probably be reported to Children's services or arrested.

The things I consider too dangerous are about the same as yours, but as you said, many parents would call Children's Services if I let them do that kind of stuff in a public area - thank goodness for my brother-in-law's farm!

Lol some nasty bitch wouldn't let the boys build catapults in our small city back yard. Though they did play with potato cannons, throwing knives and other "dangerous" stuff at the scout camp. They even did some rock climbing and caving. They survived no blood or broken bones.

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

I have a friend who managed to retire after thirty years in EOD.

His wife worries about him using his table saw.

She's a typical helicopter parent with her kids, too.

His wife is right to worry! Table saws are friggen dangerous!

But there are solutions for that.

Growing up in Winnipeg in the 50's and early 60's now seems to have been a death defying time of life, all the guys seemed to have knives and of course, bows and arrows which we shot back and forth on the railroad right of way across the street. Going to school it was over, under or through rail cars waiting to be shunted to make up trains. On Saturdays it was head over to the mainline to hop a, hopefully, slow moving freight train north over the Assiniboine river to the Winnipeg stadium to watch the Goldeyes play baseball or hang around Polo Park shopping centre. And, of course, there was the bicycle and all the trails on both sides of the Assiniboine river, monkey trails we called them, running up and down both sides of some major ravines or headed right for the river.....