5 Dangerous things to do with your child.

The link above is to a web video by some inventor-type guy. He feels kids nowdays are overly-protected and it's stunting their intellectual growth. He suggests parents should let kids (second graders and up) do the following things.

Note: he does not suggest they be allowed to do the following unsupervised or without any safety instructions!

1. Play with fire (my personal favorite)
2. Use a knife
3. Throw a spear
4. Take apart appliances (old appliances!)
5. Drive a car

-Blast

Thanks for the link Blast.

Thinking back to my youth these are all things I did at a young age and Yes I am over-protective with my children.

I may have to loosen-up a little!

Mike

I think it is important to satisfy kids curiosity (under supervision). Let em chop wood (actually use that christmas
hatchet), start fires, shoot a bow and arrow or 22. Let em
do it enough it is no longer such an unresistable draw they
will try it out secretly. Make sure they get good training
and enough knowledge.

These things can also be rewards for responsible behaviors.

I know that I did not do all of but one of these things before I was 11. I didn't drive until I was 14, but I drove a stick shift on my 14th birthday. Appliance destruction was something I started on at a young age, pre-kindergarten.

I've posted elsewhere about giving SAKs to 4 boys this year, ages 10-13. Their mother of course had to mention the possibility of them stabbing each other. You simply do not learn how to do things until you are allowed to try them. I see the 12-year old, and I remember myself at that age, and the gap is tremendous, and he is most mature of the bunch. At 12, owning a knife was not a novelty to me, and the idea of mentioning stabbing was something I frowned on by them as immature. It seems to me very much like the reaction we have in the U.S. with drinking. A 21-year old suddenly with the restrictions off is often a drunken menace. In Europe, without the restrictions, the novelty has passed.

Actually, throwing a spear has some very definate advantages. It's been proven that humans are hardwired for throwing stuff. By throwing a spear at targets (stationary and moving) we not only strengthen the parts of our brains that control eye/hand coordination but also our problem solving and predictive skills. There's a lot of physics and geometry involved in throwing a spear which the thrower can actually see clearly (velocity, parabolic arcs and the such). Shooting a gun doesn't give the same "deep brain" workout as it happens to quickly for the brain to follow.

-Blast

Check out "The Dangerous Book for Boys".

JimJr

I bought that book, for the same kids mentioned above.

A woman I used to work with has a son who is ten years old, and she is teaching him to drive (his dad is a diabetic and they live out in the sticks). He already has his own hatchet and has been taught how to handle it safely. He has a decent-sized fixed blade knife. He makes his own spears and once managed to spear a fish (he was very proud). He finds old appliances in trash occasionally, and brings them home so his dad can show him how they work.

But more important than that, they've taught him to think for himself. He learned the hard way that listening to advice from a peer that he KNOWS is bad, is going to have poor results.

He also has a small pet-sitting business (although dad goes along just to make sure he locks up and that nothing appears to be wrong at the house).

I wish more parents put more thought into raising their children. Poor kids...

Sue

Please excuse me for a moment while I climb up on soapbox here:

This whole topic is a particular pet peeve for me and I believe that way too many kids today are totally overprotected...with most GenX and GenY kids having parents that literally "hover" over them. Example; I recently observed a high school senior student whose mother regularly carried his books to class for him (no, he was not disabled and he was on a sports team for the school) and he DID NOT carry anything himself. My son informed us that this kid has had this type of service for several years. This is on top of being driven 1/2 mile to and from school.

Sadly, I've also heard first hand stories about parents taking their 18 & 19 year old kids to job interviews and answering the questions for them. Call me old fashioned or whatever, but this is in my opinion a very telling negative trend for our upcoming adults.

These kids (for the most part) have no concept of where north is or how to read a street map. Before getting out of elementary school, each of my brothers and sisters knew how to find north and had a basic knowledge of map reading which was a result of going on various car trips and being trusted to hold the road map and follow the cars path and be able to answer questions such as "Where will we turn next? Which way will we turn?". These questions soon gave way to time / speed / distance questions to determine ETA's. I was amazed when I got in junior and high school and many of the other kids did not know how to read a map legend.

My brother (a scoutmaster now for about the past 15 years) is also very frustrated with many of the kids that come in and have no clue regarding what we grew up with known as "common sense" or personal responsibility. When some of the parents found out that he was showing kids how to handle a knife they were outraged. Likewise when they found out that hikes in the Everglades did not have air-conditioned bathrooms in the boonies many were shocked that the kids would be told to "go behind the bush and bury it". Sadly this list goes on...

When we did something stupid as kids(i.e. ride on the bicycle handlebars and the bike took a tumble and we got cuts / bruises / scrapes etc., then we fully expected to hear, and were told that it was not a smart thing to do. We took personal ownership of the event, did not go around blaming others or faulty bikes etc. When we were kids, we learned before third grade how to repair bicycle tires and successfully use both glue and hot patches on the tubes. Yes, we knew what spoke wrench was and how to use it. The neighbor's kid's (he was about 15 at the time) bike had a low tire and was not riding it. I asked him about walking it to the gas station and putting air in the tire himself. Total shock and awe. Better to go to the store and buy a complete bike rim, tire and have them install it...

If we teased an animal and got snapped at or bit, then it was a lesson learned permanently and we knew that we were to blame, not the animal. Tell a kid today that the animal will bite for getting teased and it is in one ear and out the other.

Lighting fires and using knives was not a mystery to us, we were shown how and where to do things safely and were trusted with both. Please note, this was while growing up in an urban environment.

The sooner a youngster is started off with good, valid commensense information presented in an appropriate manner and place, the sooner and better they will be prepared and able to handle life's twists and turns that Murphy's Law hits us with.

Ahem, blush...I'll climb down now and a special thanks to those parents / grandparents / aunts and uncles / role models / mentors & scout leaders etc. that take the time to keep showing todays kids how to use good common sense and learn the basics of life that are so rapidly disappearing from todays youth.

Regards, Comanche7

Hi Comanche7,

Agreed with everything you've said. Do you think some parents would have a problem with some of these activities?