**This post is part of the Cultivate Your Home membership community. To read the full post, please join our monthly membership for access to this and other content to support you in your motherhood, homeschool, and handmade life**
As moms, we want to keep our kids safe. We want to protect them from harm. As we should! But kids need to take risks. This is actually an important part of their development!
Letting your kids take age-appropriate risks helps them assess risk. How can a child know whether there is a risk of falling if they’ve never fallen? Taking small risks can actually help prevent danger later!
Every time we say “be careful!” or “too high!” or “get down!” we actually get in our kids’ way and hold them back from developing. And to be honest, “be careful” is probably one of the most over-used phrases in parenting… I know I can get caught in this trap!
If you’re looking for some words to say instead of saying “be careful” try the ones in this chart below:
So how can we encourage risky play while keeping our kids safe? We can let them make age-appropriate risks like:
- climbing trees
- jumping off rocks
- walking across a creek
- balancing on logs
- hanging from branches
Create safe spaces to take small risks. Give them small logs or stumps to balance, jump, and walk on in your yard. Jumping on a small trampoline or a mattress on the floor are great ways to practice these skills in a safe space.
Will your child fall? Probably. But that’s a normal part of development! Obviously we don’t want them to fall from a height where they could seriously injure themselves, but they need to fall from small heights (like a small log) to practice balancing and catching themselves.
Set boundaries on risk-taking
Not everyone naturally feels comfortable with this type of play – especially when our kids are young. It takes practice and teaching yourself not to step in. But set boundaries that you feel comfortable with for your child. For example, if you think your child has climbed too high, it’s okay to step in and say “you’ve gone high enough – please don’t go any higher.”
Here’s an example of a boundary I set. As my kids were learning how to climb, I would not help them climb onto something that they were unable to reach on their own. For example, if they couldn’t get up onto the tree, they weren’t ready to climb it. While of course I made exceptions, this helped my kids develop their ability to climb alongside their ability to get down.
Action steps
- Notice how often you stop your kids from engaging in risky play. Is it really necessary to step in? Are they in real danger, or are you just nervous?
- What types of risky play you could say YES to instead of no?
- Where can you create safe spaces for your child to take risks?