“You'll take your eye out with that” is our family motto. I'm the hovering mum by the five-year-old on the monkey bars in the park. So how embarrassing to see research and a position statement on active outdoor play in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. It says children need “risky play” (which includes climbing and jumping from a height, unsupervised play where a child could get lost, cycling fast down a hill, playing with knives, or playing near water or cliffs). It adds that children who do so improve their reaction time in detecting risk, increase their self-esteem and are less likely to takes risks related to sex and drugs as adolescents.
我们家的家训是，“随时小心，事事注意”。如果我5岁的小孩在公园的儿童攀爬架上玩耍，我就是那个会在一旁保护着他的老妈。所以，当看到《国际环境研究与公共健康》上支持小孩积极参加户外运动的研究和声明时，我尴尬极了。论文中说，小孩需要“危险的游戏”（包括攀岩、从高处往下跳、在没有大人陪同下到可能会迷路的场所玩耍、高速骑自行车下坡、玩小刀、在水边或者悬崖边玩耍等）。论文还补充说，参加“危险游戏”能提高小孩对危险的反应速度、提升自信，还能降低他们在青少年时期接触性行为和毒品的可能性。
An English study found that, while 86% of children between the ages of seven and 11 went to school without an adult in the 1970s, this fell to 25% in 2010.
一项英国的研究发现，在20世纪70年代，7-11岁小孩中自己去上学的比例占到86%，而到了2010年，这一比例降至25%。
A Canadian study found that 81% of parents of 10- to 12-year-olds were worried about “stranger danger”, yet researchers point out that the odds of abduction by a total stranger are one in 14m. Serious risks from playgrounds (ie trapped heads and strangulation by equipment when parks used to have ropes) have largely been eliminated. Two large New Zealand studies of nearly 31,000 children reported no head or spine fractures from playgrounds in more than two and half years. Broken bones (mostly upper arm) do happen, but are rare – the Ottawa study reports an average of 1.5 injuries per 10,000 hours of play. So will you let your child play unsupervised?
一项加拿大的研究表明，81%的10-12岁小孩的父母担心“来自陌生人的危险”，但实际上孩子被一个完全陌生的人绑架的几率仅是1400万分之一。来自游乐场的严重风险（比如在公园还有绳子的时候被这些设备勒颈）已经大幅降低。两项来自新西兰的大型研究在超过两年半的时间里调查了31000名小孩，尚未发现任何一例在游乐场玩耍时发生的头部骨折或脊椎骨折案例。骨折（大多数为上臂骨折）确实有发生，但是很少见——根据来自渥太华的一项研究，10000小时的玩耍时长中，平均只有1.5个小孩骨折。那么，现在你会让小孩在没有监督的情况下玩耍了吗？
The solution
怎么办？
I phoned the author of the position statement, Mark Tremblay, to say that parents, understandably, don't want to take risks with their children. “Well never put your kid in a car – it's the most common place for a child to die,” he said sternly. He believes that we are fixated on extraordinarily rare events. “Parents have to have a balanced view of this. Their child at home is 500 times more likely to meet a stranger – the internet has many cyberbullies. Children won't develop resilience without getting a little hurt and getting back up again.”
我致电了马克·特伦布莱，是他提出让孩子面对危险这一观点的。我对他说父母不想让小孩面对危险是合乎情理的。对此他坚定地表示，“永远不要把小孩留在车上——这是造成小孩死亡最常见的场所。”他说，我们把注意力都放在了那些极其罕见的意外上。“做父母的对此应该有一个平衡的考虑，小孩在家里碰到陌生人的概率比在外面高出500倍——因为互联网上就有许多网络流氓。不让孩子受一点伤就无法培养他们的适应能力，也无法让他们学会重新振作。”
The evidence suggests that children self-regulate in play in response to risks. A sedentary lifestyle might stop them dislocating shoulders, but leads to obesity and chronic disease in later life.
研究表明，小孩会在玩耍的过程中针对不同的危险做出自我调整。老是在家里坐着的生活方式也许可以避免他们的肩膀脱臼，但往后可能会引发肥胖或者其他慢性疾病。
Tremblay passionately believes that playing unsupervised outside leads to better self-regulation and psychological health. There's even a term for overprotected kids: risk deficit disorder. Tremblay suggests parents wean themselves by first letting their children go off on their own for 20 minutes (having made sure they know how to cross the road). Not doing this may be riskier to their health.
特伦布莱坚信，没有监管的户外玩耍更有利于小孩的自我调节与心理健康。甚至有这么一个词来描述被过度保护的小孩：危险缺陷障碍。特伦布莱建议父母可以从让小孩自己出门20分钟开始（在他们知道怎么安全穿越马路的前提下），慢慢戒掉对小孩的过度保护。不这么做的话，对他们身心健康的危险可能会更大。