When does too much safety become dangerous?
Submitted by heather on Thu, 05/29/2008 - 12:40.
We seem to be well on our way to a safety-first society. Automobile seat belts have led to bike helmets and recently to ski helmets, which have now led to cries for tobogganing helmets, endorsed by Health Canada and some safety groups. What's next? Golf and tennis helmets? Jogging helmets? Maybe helmets for kids to wear to school on "snowy roof days." There's no end to how far you can go when you try to make life a "zero-risk" activity!
As a parent, I understand the fear. Most of us are Olympic worriers who live in terror that our children will be run over by a car, or abducted by killer bees, or assaulted by a giant peanut butter sandwich or...
But how far do we let our anxieties go? Do we hope to obliterate every risk? When does too much safety become dangerous?
Health risk of inactivity outweighs the safety risks of sport
Many parents are so nervous about letting their kids outdoors, where strangers may lurk in the park, that parks are now practically empty - apart from organized, supervised activities. Instead, many kids spend their after-school hours in perfect safety, sitting in their living rooms, playing on computers - and getting obese. Almost 60 million North American youth are now overweight. Hardly safe for their health.
The real risk today may be our obsession with risk... and it's progressive.
But not all countries share this obsession. For example, The Netherlands is the world's capital for bicycling, but you won't see a bike helmet on any of its millions of cyclists. (So far, helmet use has not reduced cycling deaths in Canada.)
What do you think? Should there be limitations on just how safe we try to make our lives?
I don't agree, Rob, that we
I don't agree, Rob, that we are making ourselves and our kids "too safe." I used to scoff at helmet wearing for myself (I always made my kids wear theirs) - until one day my roller blade wheels hit a pebble and sent me flying, head first, into concrete. A concussion was all the warning I needed to get my helmet out!
I also wanted to point out that just because adults and kids wear their helmets doesn't always keep them safe - such as the kid in the picture on this page. The way his helmet is perched on top of his head won't protect his brain if he crashes.
Anyway, I enjoy the discussion about "are we bubble-wrapping our kids" today. As a mom of three, who has raised happy, active and safe-paranoid children, I am all about keeping them alive and brain-functioning - the longer the better!
Hi Heather: I struggle with
I find so many of the
I find so many of the parenting practices these days do go way overboard in most cases. It's to the point people are raising a generation of hypoallergenic children. Look at the rise in the amount of people with allergies these days. Everyone coats their children in Purell to cut down on germs, yet our bodies need certain bacterias to operate.
I look at my childhood. I rode a bike without a helmet probably 99% of the time, even after it was legislated. Sure, I fell off my bike quite a few times, but I don't think I'm any worse off for it. Obviously accidents happen when children are playing, but that is the nature of life. Teaching common sense often goes a lot further then bubblewrapping your children. Legislating things to death makes no sense, and often you will find there are ulterior motives to the move anyways when it comes to any type of politics.
I've never found as a mom
I've never found as a mom that common sense and kids go together ;) I also rode bikes without a helmet, did not use seatbelts in cars, ate stuff off the ground etc. as a kid... and I definitely let my kids do the latter! I don't know why allergies are exploding; I've wondered if they were always there, but we just didn't notice or care much back then (the way we thought nothing of letting our kids, and ourselves, bounce around unfettered on the highways! )
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