Fencing off childhood

I spent my summer holidays swimming in the nearest creek and wandering all over the countryside with my mates. My husband spent his childhood clambering over rocks and whizzing down steep hills on a billy cart.

On the weekend we revisited his hometown. Not only have the local council put a roundabout in the middle of his favourite billycart hill, they have also fenced off all the rocks.

We reminisced about going out after breakfast and coming home at dark.(I still remember my father's whistle which was the signal to go home, heaven help you if he had to whistle twice!!) We realised that our parents would not have considered sueing the local council , or anyone else, if we had scraped our knees or fallen off our bikes. Yes, I know that there are probably a lot more people of whom you need to be wary these days but I do wonder if we are making ourselves and our kids scared of the whole world and in turn making them miss out on the adventures of growing up.

Should we be teaching our kids about having safe adventures and learning to recognise the thrill of imminent danger when whizzing downhill on your billycart rather than making them scared of all the people in the neighbourhood. The only thing I can remember being really scared of was the odd snake that would swim across the creek while we were swimmming.

I saw James Blundell in concert recently and he told a story of one of his kids falling off the monkey bars at school. His son said; "Dad, those things should be banned, they are dangerous." James' response was,"Nothing gets banned around here son you have to learn to hang on."

Seeing all the rocks with fences around just made me sad for all the kids that will never know the thrill of being "the king of the castle" after they have climbed to the top.