Tips and resources to support children birth to age five
What are your thoughts on safe exploration & play?
I saw the wonderful documentary film Babies last week. In case you haven’t heard about it, this film follows four infants, from San Francisco, Tokyo, Mongolia, and Namibia from birth to their first birthdays. It’s lovely and points up the fact that we all develop in the same ways and the same parental attentions are needed no matter where a child grows up.
Something that struck me, though, were the differences in child supervision and play. Director Thomas Balmes told me, in our radio interview, that all four families were at the same economic level in their respective societies – think “comfortably well-off.” Yet the Mongolian child, whose family kept goats and cattle, cavorted freely among the animals, crawling through the mud and generally enjoying freedoms that western infants never even dream of. He was at least sometimes left in the care of his preschool-age brother. There were many moments I was glad to remember that at least there was a cameraman in the vicinity!
What are your thoughts about safe play? Are we too restrictive as a society and too obsessive about dirt and hand sanitizer? Or are you always worried about your child, despite constant effort to keep her safe?
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Chris Booth on -
I firmly believe our governing agencies have gone overboard with alot of the regulations they believe are important for everybody. I know my parents are all for their children playing in the mud and running through sprinklers. Mostly, because they don't have the opportunity to where they live.
Natural play can be safe!
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Permalink Reply by peggy quinlan on
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I have a little boy with aspergers and sensory processing disorder. When he was younger he would lick walls, tires, toys, etc... that was how he explored his surroundings. He is now 11 and no longer licks everyting, and rarely get's a virus. I honestly think it is because his immune system was working hard as a little boy and got built up.
It is important to let your child explore his surroundings and learn according to how their brain is wired, while keeping them safe. What we really need to do is just wash our hands with good old fashioned soap and warm water and keep our fingers out of our eyes/mouth/nose.
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Permalink Reply by Georgina Stagi-Vassallo on -
Growing up in Lima-Peru, I remember going out to play with my neighbors on the streets of my neighborhood. We were very young and run freely on the streets where we learned to avoid traffic. We did not hear much about kids getting kidnapped or hurt. People spent less time watching TV and more time doing other chores. It was just that way. There was no other way. Kids went out to play and parents stayed at home and did not worry about their kids getting hurt. They never expected us to get hurt. We grow up street-smart. Despite being a not very safe neighborhood, they never worried about us getting hurt. When I came to live to the United States and had kids of my own, I became frustrated with the silence on the streets. No kids playing at all. Although the neighborhood I live now is so much safer than the one I grew up, we still keep kids indoors. I got into the paranoia and don’t let my kids go out to play by themselves. I usually go with them or they don’t go out at all. Weekends can get boring for a kid without being able to go out to play. I think TV has played a big role making us fear strangers to the point that we pretty much don’t trust anybody. The result, unfortunately, are kids that are growing afraid of the world around them, that are more prompt to be lure by real bad people, and that are also unable to socialize with adults and with other kids.
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