Some parents make their kids wear helmets while learning to walk. Seriously.
I read as much yesterday in Helicopter Parenting: What Are We Teaching Our Kids? The author, Nancy — whose logged over 17,000 bicycle miles with her family* — links to four different companies from whom you can order one of these walking helmets. [She also has photos of a couple of kids wrapped in bubble tape -- the cheaper solution.]
Nancy argues that kids need to learn to take and manage risks, so they can grow up to be knowledgeable, experienced, normal adults. [She doesn't even mention how ridiculous toddlers in helmets look -- and how that alone will probably be enough to scar them for life. I mean it won't just be their peers making fun of them; it will also be adults like me.]
My argument is similar to Nancy’s, but less complex: We shouldn’t make our kids into sissies. And I’ve argued it more than once.
So while I may put my kids in carseats inside other carseats, let’s don’t everyone go overboard with the helmets thing. [Unless you, like me, force your children to entertain you in the living room, gladiator-style, the winner receiving roses and applause, the loser missing supper and going to bed early.]
What do you think about our children’s safety? Where’s the line between wisdom and overboard?
i say “amen!” let them walk naked-headed.
Harper Mae’s missing a lot of suppers, isn’t she. Or does she get a handicap against Baylor?
I think it is going a bit overboard. Yes, they hit their heads on the corner of the coffee table more than once (Steph did that), but they learn from it and it toughens them up for the next blow in life.
Btw, I love how it says, “Seriously…read more of this post”
I have no idea since I’m about to do this for the first time, but I think this post is hilarious along with the mental image fo the gladiator beat down in the living room.