NBC News:
>The Yard — one of America’s few “adventure playgrounds.” At this one on a former military base just off of the Brooklyn shoreline, children as young as 6 scurry up piles of tires, pull the stuffing out of old office chairs and use tools to create and destroy whatever they wish. No parents are allowed inside.
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The Yard is one result of a growing call to expose kids to more risk, a call that has recently played out from online parenting forums to medical journals.
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>The much-debated question: Can parents’ efforts to protect their children actually hurt them?
I guess because I’m the “new” father, this place would freak me out to send my child into (I’d still do it) but my wife said she wouldn’t have a problem letting him play in this “risky” playground. I certainly agree with her when she says similar things to this article – we protect children too much at times.
i find it kind of funny how lots of us europeans shake their head at the „overprotective“ americans, who think it‘s something that „kids as young as 6“ can do this, while at the same time we‘re saying that we‘re overprotecting our own kids now, and they don‘t have the freedom to roam around freely on the streets as we had a few decades back. and of course our parents, now overprotective grandparents, said the same about us. it‘s all pretty relative ( with the constant of fear growing everywhere. but fear creates attention and thus sells media, so that‘s a guaranteed downward spiral )