Letting your kids be kids!
So I’m not saying health and safety isn’t important. In the workplace it is extremely important but I do think Health and Safety professionals need to be pragmatic in enforcing and designing safety processes. Too many and it will eventually work against the organisation – and equally in general society.
Now the real question for me as a father is how you give your kids’ the requisite education in common sense. So often you see parents in action who ‘molly coddle’ their children and don’t allow them to be kids and play a little on the edge. I believe kids really need to be free to play in the mud, to climb trees and heights and to stretch their boundaries. I watch my son develop his sense of spatial awareness and as a result you can really see that he has learned his own limitations. He will seek assistance when he feels unsure about something but will still be willing to give most things a go to that point. Parents need to let their kids explore, touch and learn about their environment. In the long run I believe this will be a safer environment than one in which you try and insulate kids from every possible danger. Because you will never always be there to protect them and it would seem such a waste for a parent never to let their kid climb on the ladder, so when you are watching elsewhere they will be the first to climb to the high board.
This actually reminds of a story told to me by my wife about a previous business colleague of hers. It was one of his first days at school and fortunately the teacher came across and said “it will be wonderful that your child is swimming in the gala on Friday”. This was news to the mother who said ‘but he can’t swim’. It transpired the teacher had said who will swim the crawl and a few kids put their hands up, followed by who will do the backstroke and her child had put his hand up willingly with all the other kids! (He didn’t know his own limitations! In fact he had never been in a swimming pool!) Probably the second lesson is to always teach your kids to swim, especially if you live in a tropical country.
Within common sense reason, let your kids explore, touch and learn what a hot stove means. And open your eyes and do your own risk assessment of your environment rather than rely on the system to protect you.
If you missed part 1 it can be found here:
https://steemit.com/life/@genxlifelessons/on-common-sense-part-1