But if one little girl had to be sacrificed to the monkey gods this fall, did it have to be mine? It’s easy to call a broken arm “species normal” when it’s not your child who’s screaming in pain. So maybe I don’t want to forcibly uproot the monkey bars from my children’s playground. The occasional broken bone, twisted ankle, or knocked-out tooth may be traumatic, but those injuries are “species normal”-that is, the kinds of injuries children have suffered throughout human history without any permanent damage. Two Norwegian researchers, Leif Kennair and Ellen Sandseter, recently wrote a paper advocating “risky play.” They argue that children who aren’t given the chance to negotiate difficult physical challenges might grow up more fearful than children who risk ( relatively minor) injury and make it through. ![]() Indeed, there’s a new school of thought suggesting that contra my monkey-bar concern, more challenging-even dangerous-playgrounds might be better for children than safer, simpler ones. He just tripped over his own feet.” Short of cocooning our darlings in bubble wrap, nothing’s going to keep them completely safe. Recently a child broke his ankle running across the soccer field: “There was no hole, no rock or anything. Schaffner points out that kids, being kids, have plentiful opportunities to injure themselves regardless of the scenario. The playground meets federal safety recommendations (which give guidelines on monkey bars but do not counsel against them) and is approved quarterly by a county inspector. Have parents advocated for the end of the monkey bars at Jamestown Elementary? Despite the helicoptering moms and dads buzzing around our suburban Virginia enclave, Kenwyn Schaffner, my daughters’ principal, says they have not.
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