Exactly When Did We Become Terrified Of Letting Our Kids Go Outside?

Are we terrified of letting our kids go outside? I don’t know – I have an infant and a toddler and I love taking them outdoors. I’m just assuming that we must be because I saw the most amazing permission slip, ever, today. Something had to inspire this nonsense, so I’m going out on a limb and concluding that some parents are terrified of nature:

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Maybe a kid came home from school dirty one day and all hell broke loose? What could possibly have motivated an educator to make a permission slip like this? Part of me hopes that this person just has an amazing sense of humor and was messing with all of the parents.

Something tells me I am giving the general public too much credit here, though. In the time of helicopter parenting and law suits, who knows the lengths that schools need to go to cover their asses. And since we’re on the topic of asses – a lot of kids don’t even get their asses outside of the house anymore. Between “stranger-danger” paranoia and TV and social media addictions, mud may in fact be a foreign object to a lot of families.

I have to admit – I laughed at first, but it kind of makes me sad now. Maybe I just take any opportunity to wax poetic about the past – but life is so different for kids now. I remember leaving the house in the afternoon and running around the neighborhood until the sun began to set. This behavior started when I was about 6-years-old. All the kids in the neighborhood did it. Does that happen anymore? It certainly wasn’t happening in Brooklyn. Maybe things will be different in the suburban town where we’ve relocated.

My kids are still young, but I hope going outside and touching mud and bugs never becomes an activity that needs to have a permission slip attached to it.

(photo: Reddit)

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