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5 April 2009

Mind the tree

Today we were playing outside in our garden and a woman visitor of one of our neighbours decided to teach Sunnyboy and his friend how to use the slide. She went on and on: "Don't climb up the slide", "Don't go down the slide head first", "Do it this way", "Don't slide too fast".

She also gave him instructions on how to eat: "Drink some water after you have a bite of toast it helps you swallow".

Her concern for his well-being included his feet: "Haven't you got any shoes? You might stand on something prickly".

Sunnyboy just ignored all this and eventually I had to ask her to give it a rest because, despite her good intentions, it was becoming extremely unhelpful. One piece of child safety advice she gave though I thought was worth sharing. As Sunnyboy walked past a tree she shouted out "Mind the tree!".

This evening I read a post on Free Range Kids called When the Playgroup Mommies Think You're a Slacker. This post is well worth reading if you're one of those parents who let their children walk past trees without protective clothing and close adult supervision.

5 comments:

  1. Wonderful post...

    Children will manage. I teach my daughter about safety...but then she must live and learn. She's not my puppet...and I don't treat her as such. I let her live life.

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  2. Glad she is only a visitor--and not a neighbor!

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  3. Great post! It's funny, visitors like that usually don't have any kids.. LOL!

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  4. Glad that she was only a visitor and I hope she doesn't come often!!

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  5. This reminds me of the lady in the grocery store who chewed me out for carrying my son in a sling because he looked "miserable" and "uncomfortable". In fact, he was in the sling because he LOVED being carried in the sling, and he was in a great mood...

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