I am so tired of Moms that freak out when their child wants to be daring. Yes, okay, we won’t keep knives in the toy box or leave matches in a lunchbox, but when it comes to “kid play,” I applaud Moms that are brave enough to let their kid be a kid
My friend Beth (sorry no photo…not sure if she wants the publicity) has a huge tree in her backyard. Sadly the houses are really close together to the safest place to put a swing is …well…NOWHERE. But that didn’t stop my friend Beth who with her husband, tied four long ropes two feet away from the trunk of the tree!
Okay, maybe the kids don’t have room to swing (they do anyway, crashing into the tree, or each other, at full force, limbs rippling in spasm as they laugh their hearts out), but they can scale the tree like Batman and if strong enough, they can even climb the hanging rope like an invincible Navy Seal!
One night at Beth’s home I watched as a four year old girl climbed the rope like a little Monkey reaching the top branch thirty feet in the air. She reached for the top branch transferring her body from the rope to the tree limb as her tiny hands held her body, legs dangled way above our heads Watching in silence, we waited for screams of “Help!” but instead none came. That spunky child wrapped her legs around the rope again and scaled down to safety as calmly if she’d just did a somersault.
Several of us breathed for the first time in a few minutes, but I was in awe. About time a Mom give in childhood and allow, “Kids to be kids!”
Now, if that girl would have fallen and broken her neck or died, this article would be completely different…if not even here at all. Maybe I would have died if she fell on me?
But like with anything in life….we have fun, we take chances…and we live. That’s the fun in life, right?