Banning Childhood

An elementary school in Boston has banned tag for fear of getting sued if a child gets hurt playing. They’ve also banned touch football and any other unsupervised contact sports, CNN reports. This is just ridiculous! They’d might as well ban childhood altogether while they’re at it! I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve said things like, “The living room is not the gym!”, or, “Stop that! I have no desire to go to the hospital today!, and the ever popular, “Stop running in the hall!” Physical play is a part of childhood that sadly, as our children grow fatter and fatter, kids really aren’t getting enough of today. And with play comes some risk. I would even argue that this early risk taking lays the foudation for the kinds of risk taking one needs to be successful in life as an adult. Oh how I wish I could still throw my body around with such reckless abandon as I’ve seen in my own kids because it sure does look fun!