A few stories have caught my attention in the news lately, and have left me feeling a little confused. No, it's not the government shutdown circus. It's this "safety" movement to overprotect our children. The first story that caught my attention was a school in Nashua, NH that banned "tag" on the playground. Tag? Seriously? The US postal service also had to destroy a ton of books of stamps that were promoting children's health. Why? Because in one stamp a child (drawn not real mind you) was skateboarding without kneepads. Ok...in another stamp a child was doing a headstand without wearing a helmet. Seriously? When did helmets become necessary in order to do a headstand? And the last stamp was a child doing a cannonball into a pool. Because...that is so dangerous. The most recent stomach turning incident? A school banned balls of any kind on the playground. As the mother of two young children I find this very sad and discouraging. Of course I want my children to be safe, but I also want them to be prepared. By not letting them get hurt once in a while or allowing them to deal with failure of bad grades or a lost game, I am doing them no justice. Playing tag, riding bikes and doing dumb shit is what being a kid is all about. It is our job as parents to raise strong kids who think for themselves and will be able to handle the hard realities that come with adult life. Who are these parents who are pushing these "safety" agendas and even more important, where are the parents who are ok with their kids just being kids to say, "wtf? this isn't right!" If we fight our children's fights and are constantly swooping in to save the day, we are not teaching our children anything. The world around us can be cruel and harsh at times. We don't need to throw our children into the fire, but rather teach them how to walk by without becoming burnt. By having a child avoid the fire altogether, they won't know what to do when the fire does eventually come. 
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