DANGEROUS PLAY TIME
Let them do something Not really dangerous, you understand, more risky-laced-withmischievous. Anything, in fact, that doesn’t involve an LCD screen…
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hat’s the most dangerous thing you’ve ever done? As eight-year-olds, me and my mate Tim Newman chopped up his old wardrobe with a rusty axe and rebuilt it as a treehouse 20 feet up in a yew tree. Dangerous? It had everything: blades, heights, poisonous berries and a livid Mrs Newman yelling at us from ground level, but it was a good day. I remember it to this day, mainly because of the large, axeshaped scar I’ve still got on my left hand. It’s bizarre that, as a weak, vulnerable and frankly rather stupid child, I merrily spent my leisure time getting into all kinds of scrapes, and now I’m at my physical peak the biggest risk is getting static shocks off my computer. As kids, we were out rain or snow (especially snow), playing trench warfare in the foundations of a half-built housing estate, hurling our bikes and ourselves over home-made ramps, or attempting to build a dam across the local river. But what of kids today? They sit in front of the TV all day sniggering at Dick and Dom. Or do they? Children are attracted to danger like dads to sheds, so while you think they’re playing safely, they’ll be seeking dangerous things to do just as hard as you’re steering them away from them.
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5 ways to keep them safe
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The best way to keep kids safe without them really knowing it is to make sure they stick with friends. Why not convince them that instead of being looked after, they need to look after their friends and never let them out of their sight? Give them games that teach them risks, but in a safe environment, under your supervision. For example, making a treehouse in your garden, or teaching them how to light – and put out – a campfire properly? Treasure hunts are always a good way of keeping kids happy and active. Send them round to granny’s or a good friend’s en route and you can keep up with their progress. Talk to them about what they would do in certain scary circumstances. Practise walking across busy roads with them safely or role play what they should do if a stranger approaches. Get them to check in at certain times using a mobile phone. Use a reward for getting home on time, but no reward for coming back clean. In fact, you should deduct points for that!
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And good for them, because while the health and safety industry has saved hundreds of lives over the years – in 1979 nearly 1,100 children died in accidents, by 2002 that number was down to 261 – experts are now worried that things have gone too far the other way. Not that 261 isn’t a tragic total, but most of those fatalities were either in road accidents or to children under the age of five. Once they get beyond five, kids are surprisingly robust and they love excitement (is this why Harry Potter and the Pale-Blue Cushion sold so badly?). Indeed, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents recently complained that playgrounds are now so safe that bored kids are misbehaving to get their kicks. Then there’s the problem of overweight children, banned by anxious parents from going outside on their own and so fat that doctors think many will die young from over-eating. Which all goes to explain the huge success of The Dangerous Book for Boys, which will no doubt be sticking out of many Christmas stockings this year – after Father Christmas has had a good read, of course. It harks back to a golden age where children were seen and not heard, because they were out in the woods somewhere skinning a rabbit. There are articles about making go-carts, catapults and periscopes, >>
PICTURES GETTY IMAGES
WORDS CHRISTOPHER NYE
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