There are bad stories about children (and adults for that matter) getting hurt doing just about every physical activity we can imagine. Kids getting run over by cars in driveways, killed in car accidents, drowning in pools, falling from heights on playgrounds, the list goes on and on. At the top of the list is kids being victimized by low-life, have no business being alive, "adults" in unimaginable ways.
I grew up working on a dairy farm. Jumping on & off the Tractor-kickbaler-haywagon train while it's all moving. Running up behind the moving big-ole Farmall diesel while they're plowing and jumping up on the 3-point hitch to say something to the driver. Swinging from mow to mow 20' up in the bank barn on a 50 year old rope. Swimming & fishing in the creek without adult supervision. 2, twelve year-old boys, alone, hunting Rabbits & pheasants with a 20ga single-shot. Having bb-gun battles (the parents didn't condone this
).
When we were in 6th grade, my friends Dad (who owned the farm) was killed when he jack-knifed a tractor/manuer spreader combo and rolled it all down a pretty steep embankment. There was another long-time farmer in our church who had his leg ripped off at the knee trying to un-jam a silage blower.
So what do we as parents do? Isolate our kids from the world and don't let them experience life? There's potential danger in every single thing we do. Think about it, we can round up and sensationalize a bunch of stories about someone getting seriously hurt or killed walking down steps - so what do we do? Do we outlaw steps and mandate elevators in multi-story buildings? Do we chastize every parent we see or hear about allowing their children to walk up & down steps?
I now live in a suburb of Atlanta where folks are raising a generation of plump little children who's most exercised muscles are those in their thumbs from using the remote controls and video game controllers. When they get to high school they won't even know the difference between an adjustable wrench and a pair of pliers and they'll depend on someone else to load their toilet paper roll... but they won't ever have been at serious risk of bodily harm or death
.
I bought a farm in Kentucky, in part, so my children (girl 9, girl 7, boy 4) could have a little piece of what I had and what made my childhood both educational and enjoyable. They might get killed while playing or working up there. As a parent that scares me a little. It doesn't scare me near as much as sending them to school each day and wondering what emotionally disturbed child, raised by an over-protective anti-depressent addicted Mamma and an absentee Dad who does nothing but throw money at him, might do.
I realize your post was well intentioned and I appreciate your concern. You just hit a nerve with me on this one. I feel very strongly that we do our children and our society a serious and potentially devastating disservice by "protecting" them from every little danger. A life without risk is a life without learning IMO.
Dave
mrutkaus said:
Not to be a downer, and no presumptions made just wondering, in the safety section there are bad stories about children riding on tractors...
Mike
