Kids Dont Explode

What has happened to cubby houses in the local park tree? Or kids on bikes riding around all day until its time for dinner? I can tell you with absolute certainty. It's what I like to call cotton wool parenting. It's the modern-day approach to maintaining a child who will never break a bone, get dirty or stay over at a friend's house. Why is this becoming the most common form of parenting these days? It's because parents are so scared of letting kids be kids. All they want to do these days is sit in front of the tv or communicate via facebook. I feel as though I have become one of those older people remembering the good old days, but it has come to that.

When I was a kid, I was free, not in the sense that I could rob a bank or stay out after dark, but I had enough rope to learn the world through adventure. I built cubby houses and fortresses in the local park, I climbed on top of school roofs to steal basketballs and I even shoplifted what ever lollies I could fit in my pockets. This has allowed me to look back and smile, knowing that I had a great time growing up in Australia.

When my friends and I got on our bikes we would be out all day, riding over home-made dirt jumps and looking for dropped coins in the hope we would get enough for an ice cream at McDonalds. I must say I have never broken a bone (largely due to a high calcium intake) but I do know that I have fallen off my bike too many times to mention, fallen out of trees, jay walked in front of cars. All in the name of being a kid.

I see parents becoming such prison wardens these days that kids are in designer clothes that are not be worn in the vicinity of dirt, they might not even own a bike and sure as hell wouldnt walk to school. Why wrap them in cotton wool? They need exposure to germs, let them be free. Video games are fun and I own a fair share, but the outside world has the greatest entertainment. The streets are not teaming with pedophiles and with the right smarts about them, they will be fine.

With facebook, myspace and mobile phones, which incorporate the first two, now kids are becoming tech savvy before they know how to ride. Try pulling out the power cords, removing the sim cards and getting out into the wide open spaces that Australia is known for. We have beautiful parks, amazing beaches and holiday destinations that put shame to so many countries, yet we choose to entertain people in our alfresco lounges, invite people around for movies and avoid gardening due to fear of bacteria in mulch. Come on! The epidemic of food allergies probably has something to do with not being a free kid (no doubt the most uneducated comment of the year, but as much weight held to it as global warming).

Let them get out there, or they wont learn about why it's so important to savour those times with mates when your young. Because the real world awaits, where jobs are a must for anyone wanting to afford those afresco's, and we cant experience life to the fullest without a concerted effort in each stage of our time on earth.