5 dangerous things you should let your kids do

[Parts]

No more coddling I think this guy has the right idea.  We have always done these things in our house.  My kids used nail guns before they were ten and I include them in my hobbies such as blacksmithing and making things
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/gever_tulley_on_5_dangerous_things_for_kids.html

[Callaway]

It is an interesting idea.


My brother is like that.  His son has his own guns and knives, sets fires, etc. 

I have kept my daughter away from setting fires and owning a pocket knife because I'm afraid that she will hurt herself or someone else.  We have taken things apart before, though.  She thinks that I can fix anything.  Maybe it's time for me to teach her more.

[Pyraxis]

1. Play with fire
2. Own a pocket knife
3. Throw a spear
4. Deconstruct appliances
5. Break the digital millenium copyright act/Drive a car

A-fucking-men. I didn't do most of those till my twenties and I'm ridiculously incompetent and insecure at material things. I remember being in a park with some neighbourhood boys when I was 10 or so, and they started a tiny fire in the woods. My brother and I actually ran away and ran home because we were too scared of getting into trouble. It didn't even occur to us to stop and play. Aside from deconstructing appliances, which I have and had absolutely no interest in doing, I would really have liked an environment where it was okay to make a mistake and get hurt.

[Alex179]

I have done all that shit a long time ago.   I used to be quite the pyro in my teenage years.   I got my first pocket knife when I was 8.   My great-grandfather used to say that you aren't a man if you don't have a knife lol.    Throw a spear, I made a spear when I was a kid out of wood (along with other weapons and objects).    I have been taking apart things and putting them back together for a long time.    I first drove a car with my dad when I was 13, him in the passenger seat.   I have done the copyright stuff ever since I have been on the internet.

I do agree that most kids need to learn about this stuff.

[Natalia Evans]

I lit trash on fire in my teens. My 18 year old brother lit other things on fire and my dad called him a pyro as a joke. My brothers also owned a pocket knife, I never did but we all lit fireworks and burned trash. Oh yeah I drove a car when I was 15 16 and 17. My brothers took a broken microwave apart though and other appliances that broke when we had a power surge when I was 13.

[renaeden]

I have kept my daughter away from setting fires and owning a pocket knife because I'm afraid that she will hurt herself or someone else. 

Probably smart since she runs up to people and pulls their hair, can you imagine what she would do with a knife.

Have done all on the list except throwing a spear, although I did throw a javelin once and somehow managed to hit myself in the neck with it.

[Callaway]

I have kept my daughter away from setting fires and owning a pocket knife because I'm afraid that she will hurt herself or someone else. 

Probably smart since she runs up to people and pulls their hair, can you imagine what she would do with a knife.

Have done all on the list except throwing a spear, although I did throw a javelin once and somehow managed to hit myself in the neck with it.

Exactly. That's the same reason we did not enroll her in karate lessons.

I have never downloaded music illegally and I never drove a car before I got my learner's permit.

[renaeden]

My mum let me drive her car in the driveway. I guess I have more in common with Rainman than I thought.

[Pyraxis]

I did throw a javelin once and somehow managed to hit myself in the neck with it.

  Is this some kind of newfangled boomerang javelin?

[renaeden]

No, it was just me being my typical awkward self. I should have said "attempted to throw", I sort of threw it but the end hit my neck, it jarred into the ground and I fell over, people laughed, the teacher told me to sit and watch the other kids do it properly. I was 7 at the time.

[The_Chosen_One]

How come he left shang-hais of the list? They were fucking good, all you needed was a small rock and birds were totally fucked. Or they left a good bruise on some poor bastard's arse. Bonnies were good, especially for cracker night, but when the government banned crackers because some idiots kept letting them off in their pants, it kind of fucked up Guy Fawkes night for us. Playing footy in the street was another good one too, waiting till the cars passed so we could have a kick. I actually hit one bastard as he went past; landed the footy on top of his car. Ran around the back so he couldn't get me. British Bulldog and Brandy at school in the sheltersheds, yeah, fucking-A. Slamming kids up against the walls when tagging them. Teachers tried to ban it, but we kept playing until we left primary school. Now the poor bastards can't even play on the sees-saws or monkey bars.

[Lucifer]

I did throw a javelin once and somehow managed to hit myself in the neck with it.

   

  Is this some kind of newfangled boomerang javelin?

   

[Peter]

I had a very stifled early childhood; I was restricted to the house and garden when I wasn't in school, up until we moved house when I was 8, though I got fed up with the arrangements and snuck away a few times before then.  After we moved, I was in a village with easy access to the countryside a lot more freedom to explore my surroundings, and I spent a lot of time by myself running across fields, climbing steep hills, crossing rivers on fallen logs (and falling in once) and other things like that.  I had a few folding pocket knives and usually carried one around with me, made crappy spears out of sticks and garden canes which my mum was concerned about when she found them, though I didn't understand what the problem was, got into trouble with a catapult, made a slingshot that I couldn't get to work very well, made a den in the garden from scraps from a nearby building site and generally had an interesting time. 

When I was 12, we moved again to where we are now, which is a boring suburb, and I stopped doing all those things, though when I was 16, I started going off by myself on long-distance treks where I'd carry food and sleep rough.  I also had a lot of experience through my childhood and beyond of digging holes, nailing bits of wood together, planting things, demolishing things, cutting things down, moving rocks about and general gardening and landscaping.  I could have learned a lot more growing up if it hadn't been for my mother; she's pathologically risk-averse, to the point where she wouldn't even let me have a stall at a car boot sale in case I lost money at it.  It didn't seem to occur to her that it could be a valuable learning experience that was worth risking £10 on.

[Parts]

I had the opposite I was left to run free from an early age and had knives and hatchets since I was 5 and was largely unsupervised.  While my teenage sisters were supposed to be watching me.   Not saying it was a good thing probably could have done with being watched over more but it gave me lots of experience.  I even shot flaming arrows

[Pyraxis]

she's pathologically risk-averse, to the point where she wouldn't even let me have a stall at a car boot sale in case I lost money at it.

Sounds familiar, though not quite as bad as one of the girls at my school, who at age 11 or so was not allowed to go outside on a cloudy day in case it might rain and she would get wet. Her mother still walked her to school throughout high school.

There was another kid who was the daughter of restrictive Muslim parents, who caused a flare-up of drama when her friends discovered that she'd gotten into cutting herself and dripping wax into the wounds. Not that I have anything against BDSM, but when a kid gets into it from sheer boredom because their parents won't allow them to grow up normally, there's something wrong.

It's a recipie for neuroticism.