Dangerous Boys
Last week I was watching TV and flipping around and I stopped on The Colbert Report. Stephen Colbert was interviewing Conn Iggulden on his new book The Dangerous Book for Boys written by Conn and his brother, Hal.
I found it fascinating, a book filled with things for boys (or girls!) to do that give me gray hair just thinking about it.
Really when we were children or our parents were children for that matter, summer time was when kids would be at their most “dangerous”. Climbing over rusty old fences, jumping of the roof into the pool, running with sticks and riding our bikes wherever and whenever we wanted just as long as we were home by dinner. After dinner we would go out and do it all over again, but it was even better because it was in the dark.
Would I let me kids do that now? Absolutely not. First they are too young to even be in our backyard by themselves, but after I told my kids they could not play on the play set we have in flip flops, I wondered, have I gone too far?
Is my paranoia about scraped knees, grass stained clothes, whether or not I can see them every second at the park and if they are wearing their helmet every time they are on anything that has wheels, about me as a mother or a media induced craze where everything is dangerous for my child?
Kids fall down, they get hurt it is a part of life. The book is filled with cool things for kids to do before we bought pre-made forts and took all of the imagination out of it. It is filled with cool stuff like how to make different knots, how to make a tree fort, to write in invisible ink and skimming stones. It also has facts that everyone should know like the names of cloud formations, common American trees and the timeline of American history.
I wonder if the Dangerous Book for Boys would let me loosen the reigns a little, let my children be children and not worry so much.
Nah, but I will still buy this book for my dangerous boy and girl.
The Dangerous Book for Boys, sons, boys, summer time, summer, dangerous kids, parenting, moms, dads, Conn Iggulden, Hal Iggulden
May 18th, 2007 at 9:16 am
[...] 21st Century Mom remembers playing Chicken and Mumbly Peg with pocket knives when she was a girl, and wonders why the book wasn’t titled The Dangerous Book for Kids. Limberlime encourages dangerous boy behavior, or at least, lets it happen, although there is now a big board at the top of the stairs to stop kids from hurling themselves down the banister. Entries are coming in fast and furious: Hokum, A Peek Inside the Fish Bowl, The Daily Bitch, Crazy MomCat,What W I Thinking?. Don’t go, there’s Cagey at Rancid Raves, and Erinn at Parenting Children. [...]
May 19th, 2007 at 2:48 pm
I have you on the Friends From Maya’s Mom blogroll, and I tried to send you the code in a MM note, but the system ate the code. Please email me at elizabeth@table4five.net and I’ll send you the code!
November 23rd, 2007 at 9:39 am
[...] I came across The Dangerous Book for Boys I loved it but I wondered what happened to the girl’s book? Well Andi Buchanan and Miriam [...]
February 5th, 2008 at 4:54 am
[...] v. nurture debate is one that can cause many flames. Most of us known the stereotypes of boys being rowdy and rough, while girls tend to be calmer and quiet. Are they really that way, or does our modern society put [...]