I’ve read a lot recently regarding fears about unsafe car seats. I’ve read also about recent recalls on baby cribs. And hardly a day goes by that we don’t hear of some new risk for our children, heck, for all of us, from some new product or activity making the marketplace rumble.
Why, when I was a kid …
Yeah, I could go on with that. I could tell of the times my older brother and I rode around our small hometown in Nebraska standing on the running boards (if you have to ask, you’re too young to understand) of an old 1940s car (don’t remember the make or model) our dad had. I could tell of the times I watched in awe as that same older brother would swing so high and so hard that he actually wrapped the chains around the upper bar on the swing set in the town park. Seat belts for cars were unheard of, car seats were unheard of. I don’t even recall all the safety contraptions on baby cribs and cradles which we insist on these days.
It’s absolutely a wonder that any generation so “safety unconscious” as ours, and the tens of thousands of generations throughout history before us, actually survived so that I could write these words.
Does that mean we should toss safety habits and safety devices away? Should we sacrifice the sturdy construction and safety moorings of today’s backyard wooden swing sets for the pole-sunk-in-the-bare-ground-strung-with-chains swing sets of our hometown park? (That park has been radically modernized and has fully compliant, safe swing sets now.)
Of course not. But I fear sometimes that we have raised a generation of parents who are really afraid to let their kids have any fun. We have a generation of parents who fear to let their kids outside alone. We truly must work harder at finding a better balance between common sense safety and a way to let kids be kids and have some fun in life!