I read that there is some disagreement about whether it’s appropriate for me to allow Nefarious to climb (play structures, fences, proper rock climbing gyms — she’ll climb anything) or not, suggesting that she could get hurt. I’ve mentioned before that I feel very strongly that kids should be as “free range” as is possible, and my brother and I certainly grew up that way (the luxury of farm life). On the worry of injury, I think that it’s actually extremely important that kids hurt themselves from time to time — the minor injuries of childhood are what teach one that safe life has boundaries, and that there are tangible consequences to one’s actions on an instinctual level.
More than that, I believe that if kids don’t learn on their own, they grow up to be stunted adults who can’t understand right and wrong, nor understand the reasoning or spirit behind law — only the letter. I actually think that’s part of the reason that the world has had all of these “I was just following instructions” mishaps with airlines banning people for wearing t-shirts of transformers from flying and similar not-quite-hilarity. If the cost of growing up in touch with reality is the occasional scratch, or even a broken arm, I think it’s worth it personally. The funny footnote to this rambling is that she fell out of the truck when we got home, so the only scrape she has is from something mundane and unavoidable!
The park was super empty today, so there was lots of space for new climbing adventures. She’s got the confidence and skill now to walk along the tops of the monkey bars… it’s like parkour (see the video above) for five year olds. Then a huge thunderstorm and torrential downpour started (Toronto actually had tornado warnings this weekend!!!), so we hid in a culvert, and then ran from covered part to covered part of the castle. She got a bit cold because (to my surprise) she had been left with her mother’s maid for the latter part of her stay and was dressed a little light, so we didn’t stay too long after that.
The excellent news about all the rain is that our plants are loving it, with my sunflowers getting bigger every day. I’m a little sad though, because I’m moving to a smaller place soon, and am not sure whether I’ll be able to transplant our little garden or not.
PS. Quack (I can’t believe how many hits that site gets).
