I received a great article yesterday from a colleague regarding children's authors in England being "censored" for writing about risky behaviors. According to this article, authors are being told to re-write scenarios in their books that may encourage children to engage in behaviors that could lead to harm. The scenarios? Simple things that we did as children...like climbing trees... Yes you read that correctly, according to this article these types of books could lead to children engaging in behaviors that could lead to harm..
I guess this puzzles me. As a child, we did all sorts of stupid things that could have lead to our impending doom; yet by the grace of God we survived with minimal damage; and great stories for our children. None of the incidents were premeditated or directed by something we read. In fact they were usually spontaneous actions brought about from three creative female imaginations deciding that some activity would be fun. The three female minds were myself and accomplices of at least two of my three sisters. One would come up with an idea, and the others would follow or add additional embellishment to the original thought. For example the time we had a significant snow fall; and the drifts were so high that we could climb to the top of the wood piled against our garage and then slide down the roof of the garage, over the wood pile and get significant distance into the yard...Needless to say the neighbor ruined our fun by calling attention to our mother that we were on the roof...Lesson learned? Mom indicated we could break our neck from falling off the roof, or worse at least a limb; and that the neighbor was in on her anxiety.
So why do we feel the need to "protect" our children from all risks? There are inherent lessons to be learned from taking on risk. Stifling a creative story will not stifle risk. Giving parents false hope that by eliminating any "idea stimulator" will decrease the risk to their children is wrong. We are human beings; and like any animal we learn from attempting behaviors; and our minds work so that ideas and decisions can be made spontaneously.
As a parent I always hoped that I had done my best to teach my child how to way decisions and make responsible choices. Yet, he has had some significant learning from taking on risks and then dealing with the consequences. I believe he will be a better adult and person because of it. As a parent it hurts to see them suffer from their consequences. It is natural to want to protect and eliminate; but the learning is lost in overzealous protection. Ironically, the lesson takes longer to then learn.
Why was this story sent to someone who works with elders? Because, it is the same thought process that care providers deal with every single day. We are to manage/control risk for our elders; and in some cases their rights be damned. The regulations are conflicting in this case. Yes you have rights; but I also am required to protect you from all harm. Even that harm which you could cause to yourself from (gasp!) being human and having an inquisitive determined mind. For example, walking. If we (your care provider) feel you are not safe to ambulate by yourself, we must do everything possible from allowing you to ambulate unassisted. Imagine sitting in your room; and seeing your roommate drop her Kleenex box on the floor. Your mind and spontaneous thoughts tell you to "get up and hand it to her". Wrong! your thoughts are no longer allowed to govern your own behavior... Welcome to a new life lesson....
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