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I had a very interesting conversation with my youngest son today that I thought I'd share with you. It went something like this:
Son: (coming in from outside dressed in navy sweat pants, black t-shirt, black silky top thing left over from Halloween, black jacket, and grass belt he made himself...and did I mention that we are having our first sweltering day??) ..."Hi Mum... Dad was right, it sure is fun playing in the woods!!"
me: What? Who are you playing with?
son: No one... just me...
me: How far into the woods were you playing? You know, the woods can be dangerous...especially by yourself!! (quick note...my husband would be roaring at this as our woods are pretty suburban...)
son: Oh...just around...not too far, really. I love hanging out in the trees, though. It's fun hiding up there and then swinging from the branches!!
me: You can't be climbing trees. You could get hurt climbing trees!! Don't you remember me telling you how your Uncle Boyd fell from a tree and landed on a branch that went right through his leg and it almost went gangrenous...??" You weren't near the old abandoned house were you...because you know how we've warned you that you can never go near that. You could fall in and no one would ever know you were in there and you'd probably break your neck in the fall anyway......You didn't do that did you??
son: No, I told you I was in the trees!!! I jumped down though when I heard some footsteps...
me: WHAT!! Who was it, because sometimes strange people hang out in the woods...You know if you ever see an adult in the woods you take off running and scream at the top of your lungs!!
son: NO, no. Calm down Mum. It was just a deer. It got me thinking about how hungry I am...it would probably taste good...Mum, I need to learn some survival skills...like Rambo (which his father rented for him the day before...stupid movie!!). I think I'd like to be a survivalist when I grow up. Do I have a jack knife...??
me: NO!! And you're never getting one because you could hurt yourself and they're stupid and we don't eat deer...we go to the grocery store...don't get any ideas that you're going hunting...ever!!
son: Mum...calm down!!! You're so obsessed with safety...I'd never go near the old house...why would I do something dangerous like that??!!
me: Gee, I have no idea...(thinking to myself, "you've only had a major spleen injury from scaling an 8 ft foundation wall after being given strict orders not to go near it...broken your wrist doing crazy "tricks on your bike", tried to jump a fence while sprinting, thought it might be fun to jump off the upper deck into the pool ( we caught this in time and installed iron spikey things to the fence to prevent any attempts)...I have no idea why I lecture about safety so...!!")
Despite all this, as I was having my back and forth with him, I did catch myself sounding incredibly paranoid and over the top safety conscious. Since when did we, as parents, deem climbing trees, exploring beyond the 80x100 lots we all live in (at least in the suburbs), and entertaining themselves outside so incredibly dangerous? I used to leave on my bike in the morning with friends and not come back until dinnertime. We swam after eating, ate lots of sugar and played hide and seek outside...after dark. We lived!! I can't help it though, I just want them to be safe and I "see" potential danger in every activity and around every corner. Is anyone else like me?? This boy is going to have me totally gray by the time I'm forty!!
