# Why is nothing safe for kids to do these days? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 9, 2010, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-nothing-safe-for-kids-to-do-these-days/553202 "2010-09-09T17:40:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2010, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-nothing-safe-for-kids-to-do-these-days/553202/81 "2010-09-11T17:11:23Z")
Funnily enough, there have never been more humans on the planet at a time when we’re tying ourselves in knots trying to save every single one from any possible injury or death. ---
**Author:** ![gwendee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/35a633/32.png) [@gwendee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gwendee)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2010, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-nothing-safe-for-kids-to-do-these-days/553202/82 "2010-09-11T17:44:27Z")
> [@Tethered\_Kite](#): > > Something I see a lot of is parents trying to discipline their children in public and teach them the safe way to do things and the kids don’t mind. I’d say at least half of the parents just give up and let them do as they please. > > When we were told not to do something and we did it anyway there were swift consequences. All but the most contrary of us didn’t do it again. That’s something I don’t see often anymore. > > Last week I was swimming and I listened to a mom threaten half the afternoon that if her children kept doing what they were doing they were going home. Never happened. > > Apparently mom wanted to be there and that was more important than teaching the little rascals that her word was the law when their safety was involved. I particularly notice this in restaurants. Who cares if junior is crawling under tables stabbing strangers in the ankle? My starter sampler has arrived. In a way I think it relates what I see as the point of the OP. It’s easier to categorize everything as unsafe than teach children individually to be safe. ---
**Author:** ![Tethered\_Kite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@Tethered\_Kite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tethered_Kite)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2010, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-nothing-safe-for-kids-to-do-these-days/553202/83 "2010-09-11T17:46:19Z")
Darwinism is our friend. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Tethered\_Kite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@Tethered\_Kite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tethered_Kite)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2010, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-nothing-safe-for-kids-to-do-these-days/553202/84 "2010-09-11T17:55:13Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > The world hasn’t changed. Kids haven’t changed. But for some reason parents have gotten completely neurotic. I’ve been thinking about this and wonder how much it is related to our commercialized society. If any generation was ever marketed to death it is our twenty and thirty-somethings. While greed and vanity are good motivators fear seems the very most motivating of all. Perhaps they’ve all been conditioned by the media to fear. Fear sells. You might have dandruff if you don’t use our shampoo. If you don’t buy our helmet people will think you are a bad parent. Or, worse yet, your child’s head may break. Who wouldn’t be motivated by that? Buy this to prevent bedbugs. Don’t be an object of laughter. Buy this new cell phone. How to win consumers? Scare 'em to death. ---
**Author:** ![ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chockfullofheadygoodness/32/511_2.png) [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2010, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-nothing-safe-for-kids-to-do-these-days/553202/85 "2010-09-11T18:50:43Z")
> [@Susanann](#): > > My gosh!!! There are some people out there who unload their guns but keep sharp scissor and butcher knives unlocked and easily accessible to any child who can reach 30 inches above the floor. > > …its just a different mentality. Makes perfect sense to me. A toddler with a loaded gun might shoot _me_. A toddler with a knife, I can roundhouse kick that little shit in the head before he’s any danger to me. ---
**Author:** ![A\_Dodgy\_Dude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a87d85/32.png) [@A\_Dodgy\_Dude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A_Dodgy_Dude)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2010, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-nothing-safe-for-kids-to-do-these-days/553202/86 "2010-09-11T18:51:43Z")
> [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](#): > > > [@Gedd](#): > > > > WTF? Did they pile the leaves on live WWII mortars that were lying in the yard? Did someone through used needles in it? > > I put bear traps in my leaf pile. The I don’t tell anyone so it’ll be a surprise. Besides, unexpected humor is always the funniest humor. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2010, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-nothing-safe-for-kids-to-do-these-days/553202/87 "2010-09-11T18:52:28Z")
> [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](#): > > Makes perfect sense to me. A toddler with a loaded gun might shoot _me_. > A toddler with a knife, I can roundhouse kick that little shit in the head before he’s any danger to me. But what if he’s in a burning car that’s about to explode? He might need that gun. ---
**Author:** ![Susanann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ab992/32.png) [@Susanann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Susanann)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2010, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-nothing-safe-for-kids-to-do-these-days/553202/88 "2010-09-11T19:30:14Z")
> [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](#): > > > [@Susanann](#): > > > > My gosh!!! There are some people out there who unload their guns but keep sharp scissor and butcher knives unlocked and easily accessible to any child who can reach 30 inches above the floor…its just a different mentality. > > Makes perfect sense to me. A toddler with a loaded gun might shoot _me_. > A toddler with a knife, I can roundhouse kick that little shit in the head before he’s any danger to me. …famous last words of Lizzie Borden’s stepmother ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2010, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-nothing-safe-for-kids-to-do-these-days/553202/89 "2010-09-11T20:10:32Z")
> [@Tethered\_Kite](#): > > > [@CookingWithGas](#): > > > > The world hasn’t changed. Kids haven’t changed. But for some reason parents have gotten completely neurotic. > > I’ve been thinking about this and wonder how much it is related to our commercialized society…If you don’t buy our helmet people will think you are a bad parent. Or, worse yet, your child’s head may break. Who wouldn’t be motivated by that? > > Buy this to prevent bedbugs… Tangentially. I’ll repeat [what I said above](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=12895359&postcount=6): Our wealth changes our thinking. Once we can stop worrying about the basics (disease, etc.), we need to buy our sense of security by focusing (i.e., spending) on other things. Marketing people know this, so they create new worries. Spending money is an expression of self: self-security as well as self-fulfillment. It’s how we manifest our being, whether it’s for junk or a better self-image as parent. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2010, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-nothing-safe-for-kids-to-do-these-days/553202/90 "2010-09-11T20:46:57Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > My ER and trauma career has been loaded with many episodes of “boy, you were lucky you were wearing a helmet” and even more of “what a shame they weren’t wearing a helmet”. There is no doubt that a helmet increases the level of safety but if you focus on the numbers there is a correlation between location and fatalities. Putting a helmet on a child and tossing them out the door to grab a little vitamin D is a bad plan (not implying you are saying this). what has to be looked at are the number of injuries/deaths per million before we mandate safety equipment because there is no limit to what a government can do in this respect. ---
**Author:** ![Trepa\_Mayfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@Trepa\_Mayfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trepa_Mayfield)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2010, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-nothing-safe-for-kids-to-do-these-days/553202/91 "2010-09-11T21:42:42Z")
> [@Susanann](#): > > > [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](#): > > > > Makes perfect sense to me. A toddler with a loaded gun might shoot _me_. > > A toddler with a knife, I can roundhouse kick that little shit in the head before he’s any danger to me. > > …famous last words of Lizzie Borden’s stepmother …who? ---
**Author:** ![ataraxy22](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ataraxy22/32/307_2.png) [@ataraxy22](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ataraxy22)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2010, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-nothing-safe-for-kids-to-do-these-days/553202/92 "2010-09-11T22:58:47Z")
> [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](#): > > > [@Dogzilla](#): > > > > But I bet a lot of parents these days have to worry about some busybody Muffy reporting them to child protective services for letting their kid climb a tree or go sledding without a helmet or whatever. > > Bingo!! > My kids hate having to go into the store with us to go shopping, but after the last time we left them in the car, they have no choice, despite that fact that they’re 8 and 10. My wife let them stay in the car playing their DSs while she went into the store to shop, expecting to be gone 10 minutes. Parked in the shade and it was a cool day, so there was no danger of overheating. 5 minutes later she’s being paged over the store PA to come to customer service and is greeted by mall security and some irate social worker who happened to be walking through the parking lot and saw “a baby” left alone in a car. Um, that “baby” is 8 years old, knows how to use the cel phone left in the car so he can call Mom if there’s a problem, and knows how to lock and unlock the car doors, and not to talk to strangers tapping on the car window. The 10 year old wasn’t visible as he was under a blanket trying to reduce the glare on his DS screen and the 8 year old fell asleep. Wow! That’s bullshit. I hate busybodies like that. I hated going into certain stores with my parents when I was that age and even younger, and no one ever thought there was a problem with it. I feel so bad for kids of today. Soon it will be considered abuse to NOT keep them locked in padded rooms. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2010, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-nothing-safe-for-kids-to-do-these-days/553202/93 "2010-09-12T02:08:39Z")
When my daughter was 2 or 3 we sometimes liked to jump around the bed with toy swords playing pirates. One morning I woke up to a big kitchen knife being waved in my face by a cheerful child ‘let’s play pirates, Mummy!’ 😃 I hadn’t realised she’d grown tall enough to reach the knife drawer; I moved them that day. This thread is the first time I’ve ever heard of anyone saying that keeping knives away from very young children is overcautious. That’s as extreme as not letting your kids jump in leaf piles. ---
**Author:** ![Tethered\_Kite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@Tethered\_Kite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tethered_Kite)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2010, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-nothing-safe-for-kids-to-do-these-days/553202/94 "2010-09-12T03:51:19Z")
> [@scifisam2009](#): > > When my daughter was 2 or 3 we sometimes liked to jump around the bed with toy swords playing pirates. One morning I woke up to a big kitchen knife being waved in my face by a cheerful child ‘let’s play pirates, Mummy!’ 😃 > > I hadn’t realised she’d grown tall enough to reach the knife drawer; I moved them that day. > > This thread is the first time I’ve ever heard of anyone saying that keeping knives away from very young children is overcautious. That’s as extreme as not letting your kids jump in leaf piles. Agreed. And here’s an interesting idea that I hadn’t thought much about until this afternoon when my husband and I were talking about what we used to do for fun. He was remarking on the childhood game of “Stretch.” Two stand opposite of each other and throw a knife into the ground to the side of the other. Then that person must stretch his foot out to where the knife is. Eventually someone is unable to do so. And he said that all the farm boys carried pocket knives in grade school and played with them at recess. They knew proper use of knives apparently. (Most all of them were driving tractors by the age of twelve as well.) How well will today’s children learn to cope if they aren’t carefully taught proper care with dangerous items? I guess it’s assumed the majority of them will be in business and never encounter a gun or knife? ---
**Author:** ![Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce7236/32.png) [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mona_Lisa_Simpson)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2010, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-nothing-safe-for-kids-to-do-these-days/553202/95 "2010-09-12T04:00:49Z")
In [Cathedral Gove](http://www.cathedralgrove.eu/text/01-Cathedral-Grove-1.htm) this summer my son started climbing and walking along big fallen cedars. My brother, vetran of 6 broken bones I can think of readily, (including the 18 month span where he broke a radius, then an ulna, then several wrist bones at regular intervals) and probably a few I can’t, kind of freaked out. “Hey Simpson Kid, That is way dangerous.” Um, no it isn’t. We did it at camp as kids. With skinny Ontario trees, not these massive rainforest giants. It looks dangerous. Look who’s talking, achey breaky brother…You did worse stuff, younger. I don’t know, I worked in neurosurgery, and I agree with helmets. I agree with seatbelts, and I don’t think kids should get chemistry labs with explosive ingredients from Eaton’s Catalouge. But my kid is still going to be a kid and get to do stuff. If my brother isn’t around. ---
**Author:** ![Susanann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ab992/32.png) [@Susanann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Susanann)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2010, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-nothing-safe-for-kids-to-do-these-days/553202/96 "2010-09-12T04:13:07Z")
> [@Tethered\_Kite](#): > > How well will today’s children learn to cope if they aren’t carefully taught proper care with dangerous items? … and never encounter a gun or knife? Helpless. Defenseless. Dependent. Pathetic. ---
**Author:** ![Otara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a88e4f/32.png) [@Otara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otara)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2010, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-nothing-safe-for-kids-to-do-these-days/553202/97 "2010-09-12T04:39:14Z")
> [@Tethered\_Kite](#): > > He was remarking on the childhood game of “Stretch.” Two stand opposite of each other and throw a knife into the ground to the side of the other. Then that person must stretch his foot out to where the knife is. Eventually someone is unable to do so. > > And he said that all the farm boys carried pocket knives in grade school and played with them at recess. They knew proper use of knives apparently. (Most all of them were driving tractors by the age of twelve as well.) I wouldnt call that having learned the proper use of knives. Otara ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2010, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-nothing-safe-for-kids-to-do-these-days/553202/98 "2010-09-12T15:08:51Z")
> [@Susanann](#): > > > [@Tethered\_Kite](#): > > > > How well will today’s children learn to cope if they aren’t carefully taught proper care with dangerous items? … and never encounter a gun or knife? > > Helpless. > > Defenseless. > > Dependent. > > Pathetic. And…more to the point of this thread…scared. I think what we have here is a deepening of the phenomenon, not a new one. My generation was raised with carseats, mostly, and kids born 10 years after me (so not quite my generation, but not my children, either) absolutely in car seats. We had Jarts when I was young, but by junior high, they were a thing of the past, replaced with rounded throwing things. So I was raised with “some precautions” and those just after me with “bubble-wrap lite”, and now we’re raising our kids just a skosh more cautiously than we were raised, and it’s into full blown bubblewrap territory. Why? Because my generation of parents rarely got hurt (I remember 1 broken arm from play amongst all of my friends) and those just after us probably not at all. While that may look like a good thing to a parent, it means we lost a valuable life lesson: most of the time, when you get hurt, you get better. Pain isn’t the end of the day, it’s part of it. By not letting our children experience even mild, transient pain or injury, we make them fearful of pain to the point where it begins to interfere with what used to be considered normal life. And then when they have kids, they’re even more panicked about pain and injury, and add on a few more safety features to avoid pain and injury. But because they started with more layers of bubble wrap as “normal”, the sum total of protective devices or measures starts to look ridiculous. My childhood “normal” was car seats and safety caps on outlets. The parents just slightly older than me\* added bike helmets and elbow pads. My parenting cohort took those as “normal” and added rubberized playground surfaces and removed the merry-go-rounds. The next one is pushing sleep apnea monitors at home for normal infants and who knows what else. Each cohort is only adding a little step at a time, so it doesn’t seem like we’re going overboard. It’s the accumulation of these steps which = bubblewrap parenting. And it’s because we’re so abnormally afraid of pain and suffering, never having experienced enough of it and come through it as kids stronger for it, IMHO. \*Actually, I’ve been part of two distinct parenting cohorts, as the parent of a current 17 year old and a 5 year old. But I was very young when my son was born, so most of the parents I was parenting with were not truly my peers. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2010, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-nothing-safe-for-kids-to-do-these-days/553202/99 "2010-09-12T15:44:07Z")
> [@Otara](#): > > I wouldnt call that having learned the proper use of knives. > > Otara Me neither! That’s throwing knives at your friends! I’d happily let my daughter have a pen-knife if she needed one, but she doesn’t. We live in the city - what exactly is she going to use a penknife for? She does help with preparing veggies using a knife and has helped with sawing the few times we’ve done it. Those _are_ the proper uses of knives for a city kid. ---
**Author:** ![Susanann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ab992/32.png) [@Susanann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Susanann)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2010, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-nothing-safe-for-kids-to-do-these-days/553202/100 "2010-09-12T17:22:51Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > By not letting our children experience even mild, transient pain or injury, we make them fearful of pain to the point where it begins to interfere with what used to be considered normal life. And then when they have kids, they’re even more panicked about pain and injury, Good point. …and that!!! is how you get a society full of government dependent ignorant scared sissy whimps. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-nothing-safe-for-kids-to-do-these-days/553202.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-nothing-safe-for-kids-to-do-these-days/553202.md?page=6)