I was reading Brain, Child! the other day, and there are a pair of essays on Safety and kids. How much is enough, and how much is too much.

I come down firmly on the side of there is too much…so much that it endangers our kids and our society. I am 39 (or real frickin’ close to it..) and have never broken a bone (‘cept for knuckles, but that’s a whole ‘nother can o’ beans..) The injuries I sustained as a kid could not have been prevented by any kind of protective gear. Yes, I know that “every year, children die from accidents in play…” and just as many die from being alive. Yes, I don’t want it to happen to my girls. But I also don’t want them to grow up afraid and over protected with weakened immune systems.

Let them live! Eat some dirt, crash your bike, hold a snake, and look at that bug up really close! We’ve been doing it for millions of years… evolution works. BTW, don’t bother me with any of that so called intelligent design garbage. Humans, like butterflies, should not work – at least from an engineering standpoint.