Every generation of American children seems to be more guarded carefully than the last, and it is not ultimately beneficial to the children. The end result, I believe, is that the signal is sent out to the children that the world is a scary place of which they need to be fearful, and it is up to Big Brother to ban or outlaw anything that may hurt them.

Here is one actually useful video to come of this. In it, the gentleman describes how to determine if a toy is too small to give to a child under three. One might think it is entirely evident if a toy is too small, but the number of children under three choking on toys tells us otherwise.

The Daily Beast has an entire article dedicated to dangerous backyard toys for children. The thing of it is, they hit the nail on the hammer in the article itself without realizing it.

The danger does not come from the toys but from the parents who fail to care enough about their children to supervise them while they are using the toys.

Home jungle gyms and swing sets are less likely to be anchored properly or installed on a protective surface. And most parents get lulled into a false confidence knowing their children are “safe” when they’re nearby—less than 25 percent of parents closely monitor their kids on play equipment at home, according to a survey conducted by the Home Safety Council in 2008.

In other words, parents incompetently install their home jungle gyms and swing sets and rarely monitor their children while they are using them — so the solution has to be to take the jungle gyms and swing sets away? Hardly.

Rather, the solution is to make sure that if you are going to have a home jungle gym or swing set, install it properly. Watch your children while they are at play to make sure that they are not in danger.

I know someone whose child got hurt while the child was jumping on his bed — would you propose the child sleep on the floor to counter the possibility of this accident, or would you rather have the parent watch over the child more carefully so that they don’t jump on the bed?

Incidentally, both my brother and I got hurt while using a bath tub and a bed — somehow we lived full childhoods without having either of these things confiscated from us by a menacing Nanny State.

2 Comments

  1. I wish we had some clear way to require parents to care more about their children, Gordon. I don’t know if the courts, the police, Jerry Springer, the schools, the medical community, places of worship and social services are enough.

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