I have two young children. I love them both very much, and want to see them grow up in a safe, and nurturing environment. I also know that they need to experience life for themselves, and learn some lessons the hard way. For one example, my wife is scared to let our 16 month old daughter go down the slide by herself ( this is a park slide, not one of those little plastic suckers). I on the other hand think that she is just fine doing so. I know there is the possibility she could get hurt, but she hasn’t so far. In Your Humble Opinion, how far should a parent go with Natural Consequences?
Depends on how high it is. If your wife could get someone else to walk up behind her, and then your wife could stand next to her while she goes down, she’ll be less freaked out about it. Pretty soon the little tyke will be flying down like a rocket!
I’m all for Natural Consequences. Kids don’t break easily. Now, I wouldn’t let the little one do a slide that was 10 feet tall, but really…they can handle these things.
Ha! Mrs. Gaffer and I have this same conversation a couple of times a week over the Little Gaffers. I suspect that the push and pull between us creates some kind of relatively safe space for the boys to play in.
My daughter is 2.5 years old, so this comes up a lot. We try to warn her away from potential injuries, however mild. Of course we don’t ever want to see her hurt, but if she never has a negative consequence, she’ll never learn. So we warn and keep an eye on her, but no matter how vigilant you are, you can never truly keep them from all harm.
It’s your job to keep the situation as safe as possible for the little one. If you teach her how to go down the slide properly and make certain the ground surfaces aren’t concrete or hazardous in some other way, then you have to let her try her wings. Though I must confess that I have gone down many playground slides with my daughter on my lap (because I was afraid she’d go too fast).
We’ve managed to get our kids to 4 and 6, so far without serious incident. We tend to be on the cautious side, too. Natural consequences relating to gravity and so forth have a way of taking care of themselves, despite the best efforts of hovering parents.
I think it also depends partly on the personality of the child. Some are cautious and need to be encouraged, others are totally fearless and may need a few gentle lessons to reign them in. You probably know which kind you’ve got more or less by now.