Is There Such A Thing As Too Safe?

Remember old-fashioned playgrounds? The ones with all sorts of
extremely dangerous toys like seesaws (kids can fly off),
merry-go-rounds (kids can fly off and get trapped underneath), and
those pirate ship jungle gym contraptions with the really tall slides
(I don’t even want to discuss the possibilities here). These
playgrounds didn’t have rubber matting to cushion a fall. Usually the
ground was covered by sand, or wood chips, or even concrete. They were
really fun, but it does seem amazing now that we all survived playing
on them.
 
I’m not advocating for the return of these amusement-cum-death traps, but have we gone too far in the other direction? Are we too obsessed with rounded corners, rubber coatings, and plastic slides? Do our precautions prevent our kids from experiencing the world and learning some healthy lessons about safety? CaféMom offers an interesting perspective on this question in the DailyBuzz post Extreme Baby-Proofing.

What is amazing to me is that even with all of the precautions we do take, kids still find ways to make life dangerous. I was taking care of two five year olds the other day and took them to a new and comparatively much safer playground. In the span of a half-hour, one of them took a tumble down the platform steps leading to the slide and the other one got his head temporarily stuck between two bars. And that was with me hovering over them like the safety police! Luckily no one was seriously hurt, but my nerves were pretty frayed by the end of the day.

If you are the type of parent who carefully childproofs everything, I can relate. As of now, my plan is to roll my kids in bubble wrap as soon as they take their first steps.