My brother sent me the most fascinating article this weekend. If you were the kind of kid that was out playing all over your neighborhood in the summer, making forts, hitting up the rope swing at the creek, and all of this completely unsupervised, you will really enjoy this piece written on the Atlantic.
It describes "The Land" a place where kids can go play almost completely without adult supervision to explore, make trouble, build fires, basically whatever their littler hearts desire. It reminds us of what imaginary play is like, why it is a good idea for your kids to get dirty and into trouble, and that getting your kids off the cookie cutter play grounds that we hover over watching our kids' every move is a good idea.
What I found most interesting is that the creation of a sort of "fear parenting" has made us all forget that kids can be independent, make good decisions, and all that time wondering off without mom and dad makes them creative, inspired, and strong people. And that statistically, while accidents happen the do not happen as much as we might think. Plus, they might just be a part of life in general whether we are watching or not.
We have been looking at play sets for the backyard and this article makes me rethink it so much. If you have the time (it is kind of long), read the entire article, but even just skimming it with your coffee this morning makes it a great read.
Here is the link: The Overprotected Kid
Would love to hear your thoughts.
xo
Erin
