In Colorado, a mom friend has been told "don’t let your kids play out on the prairie. There are pedophiles and cougars out there."
In Seattle in 2018, an outdoor preschool teacher was assaulted by a homeless man living in the park where the class was taught.
In some neighborhoods of L.A., Chicago, Baltimore, and elsewhere, it really is not safe to go out on the street due to gang and drug violence.
As a parent these stories horrify us and make us never want to let our kids outside again.
It’s especially hard when one of these things happens to someone you know. It was my daughter’s preschool teacher that was assaulted in Seattle.
And we DO need to be safe and prepared.
But we have to weigh the likelihood of the danger of outdoor free range play vs. the reward.
Kids also need independence and a little bit of risk in order to grow. They need to fail, they need to fall. They need to go on seemingly grand adventures, even if they’re not actually going very far. Otherwise we end up throwing them into the deep end of adulthood, unready to face the really big scary stuff.
Kids need to struggle and figure out problems and fail in a safe time in their lives, childhood, before they have to face real dangers in adulthood.
Mental Flowers 