human909 wrote:Kids will be kids. I'd love to see that trend reverse and see more kids getting injured! (as peverse as that sounds) More kids being more active will improve society in so many different ways beyond simply the direct health benefits.
+100
My boy (8yo) has stacked his trike and BMX several times. Each time, I asked if he OK, then complimented him on the impressiveness of his (minor) injuries, and the stoicism with which he handled himself post-crash. We then stop for a few mins and discuss how the crash happened, and I'm careful to be specific about the cause. It's no good just saying "you went too fast around the round-about" when the actual cause was "you were turning at speed when you hit that gravel patch. That made your front wheel slip out" and he now see's stacks as a kind of lesson in physics. His attitude has changed from "I can't ride that far/up that hill/through that etc" to "Lets ride to there/up that hill/through that etc".
Don't get me wrong, I'll always make sure he wears a helmet even though I oppose MHL on principle (after all, kid-stacks are pretty much what they're designed for), but kids need to get out and push their physical boundaries even more than we adults do. Holding them back for fear of what are realistically minor injuries is, to my mind, detrimental to healthy growth and experience.
Dent.