Parents who would rather their kids play videogames all day than go out and get hurt

It blows my mind such parents can exist. One time on a message board I was talking about how some kids, they just stay inside all day and play video games, they never go outside and do anything active. And one mother responded that she would RATHER her son just stay inside all day at the TV than maybe go outside and risk getting hurt. HELLO? Are we still on the planet earth? Every damn person in this planet gets hurt, you can't stop that from happening. And if you let your kid grow up thinking it never happens because you prevented him from falling off something and getting scuffed up, you have not done him any favors when he's 18 and goes out into the real world.

Yes kids get hurt when they go out and play, they fall off swings, off of monkey bars, they get hit in the face with basketballs, they fall off their bikes, but falling down is part of growing up, everybody knows that. So what are these parents trying to achieve by keeping their kids parked at the Xbox all day to keep them 'safe'? Who wants to be safe? Kids don't want to be safe. They want to take their bikes all over town, they want to set up tents and camp outside, they want to go swimming, they want to skateboard, they want to try popping wheelies on their bikes, they want to prove they can climb to the top of the tallest tree just to show everybody else up.

Actually while I'm on the subject, this reminds me of a story about Katharine Hepburn when she was a child. She had all these brothers, and their father was a doctor and heavily encouraged them to be active in everything: wrestling, swimming, running, gymastics, acrobatics, sledding, everything. And one day when Katharine is 7 years old, a policeman comes knocking on the door and alerts her father that she is on the tallest limb of the tallest tree out there. And the father tells the policeman, 'I know, don't tell her it's dangerous, she doesn't know', closed the door, and went back to reading his book. And for all the 'dangerous' stuff she did with her brothers, there was never any mention of any of them breaking anything or getting seriously injured.

But I digress, does anybody else get the logic of these kinds of parents?

That is a neat story about Hepburn's dad.

I will never understand that logic. We need to teach out kids how to play safe, but there has to be a balance.

In a meeting with our son's Kindergarten teacher, she told us that they really coddled their daughter...walking behind her when she was a toddler to make sure if she stumbled, she would not hit the ground. She detailed a lot to us, but ended with the sentiment that their overprotectiveness never allowed her to learn how to fall. So, in return, they had a very clumsy daughter who would go down stunt dummy style if she tripped on a shoe lace.