Don’t put kids in bubble wrap
Growing up in the heart of the Wairarapa, in the small farming town of Carterton, I remember feeling excited as the end of the year approached, with the weather getting hotter and a summer break just around the corner. For me, holidays were all about swimming in the Waiohine River, going for long bike rides, and exploring the streets and fields. There were few rules, other than the need to be home by the time the streetlights came on.
I would build ramps for my bike, climb trees, practise somersaults on the trampoline (without a safety net), and have water-bombing competitions with my mates at the swimming hole.
I would take risks. And occasionally, the consequence of this risk taking was that I would injure myself. I fell out of trees, crashed my bike, cut myself with my dad’s hunting knife, and always wore lengthy grass burns down my legs from backyard rugby.
Last summer, ACC received about half a million claims for injuries caused by accidents between December 1 and February 28. On Christmas Day alone, there were 4193 accidents that needed some form of medical treatment. One quarter of these related to kids.
What is the solution? Should we doing more to protect our children?
Take monkey bars. Last month, some people were calling for them to be banned because of an uptick in injury claims in Australia.
My view – and that of leading child development experts – is that this would be counterproductive. Bubble-wrapping these kids won’t solve the problem, as it ignores the benefits of risk-taking.
Injuring myself taught me how to navigate my surroundings, helped to develop my spatial awareness, and enabled me to better calculate risk. According to scientific research, children develop the frontal lobe of their brains when taking risks, meaning they work out consequences.
By removing risks, we remove the opportunity for this neurological development. The consequences of this in later life could be much more catastrophic from an injury perspective.
Kids learn through play, and it’s important we let them play. But it’s also important that they are educated about the dangers that exist.
Ican vividly remember my father taking me to the Waiohine River, to the spot where it meets Totara Creek. Summer in Wairarapa can get stinking hot, and I loved cooling off there. Without doubt, rivers can be dangerous places. Water Safety New Zealand says 15 people drowned in rivers in 2017, the same number as at the country’s beaches. At ACC, we received 171 claims on Christmas Day alone last year for swimmingrelated injuries.
My dad was aware of the risks. But instead of stopping me from swimming in the river, he educated me about how to be safe. He would throw sticks into the rapids, and make me watch where the river took them, teaching me about currents and the power of the river. He would tell me that if you get washed into a tree, there’s a possibility that the current could push you under it – and you could drown.
This taught me how to get across the river, to go upstream and swim downriver focusing on a clearing between trees. He would also school us about the need to swim underwater and look for hazards beneath jump-off points, before committing to the jump.
Years later, as a teenager, this paid off for my cousin and I when, to my surprise, there was a car wreck just below the dark water that had been pushed off the cliffs at our favourite jumping spot.
I am now a father, with two young boys. This month, my wha¯ nau relocated from Wellington back to my papa ka¯ inga in Carterton. And this summer we’re hoping to spend a good chunk of time at the Waiohine River, where I will be planning to pass down the same wisdom to my kids.