well, i kind of agree but i have a confession. I AM A NAMBIE PAMBIE in some areas! lol

I do supervise my children when at the playground and make sure they dont go away from the playground, we have a local pool, but i don't take them. Not because of the safety issues, but because they aren't alowed to get their ears wet (have tried all the plugging devices etc) due to the water causing thrush of the ear etc (ear infections).

I let my daughter play unsupervised in the back yard, my back yard is plain and apart from the ramp and clothes line, there really is nothing that can hurt her, unless she puts sand in her eyes whilst playing in her sand pit.

I don't worry about germs or anything like that, if they get a cold, they will get over it. pass it on to the whole family so we are sick at the same time.

i don't disinfect much at all, just the bathroom and maybe once a week i will disinfect the kitchen floor (i mop 3 times a week though)

one thing i never do though is shift my responsibility of the children on to another if i am there to watch them.

o well we are all different which makes life that little bit more interesting

I guess it depends where you take them to play... Our midget is getting accustomed to being out & about in the bush & rivers & lakes as well as swimming pools.  You are right though, we have ended up minding strangers children for want of finding a parent who seems to be caring for them at the pool. 

Those plastic things at the park are boring, however there are trees & you can teach your kids to climb & play on them instead.  Many parents don't actually play with their kids, they just like to sit on their lardy butts & watch the kids, so I guess that councils in fear of large law suits have tried to accommodate the lazy generation... Which I believe is generation Y, as in Y bother, Y give a (you know what), it was their parents that created the nambie pambies.

i dont think im very overprotective when it comes to my kids playing? granted they are not allowed to leave the yard by themselves but they play in the backyard all day long and whatever they want.

gosh chloe even spent the day swining on the hills hoist clothesline the other day! i almost told her not to then remembered how much fun it was when i used to do the same!

tobias climbs the slide alone at 17 months and can unfortunatly climb the bunk beds now too!

our park has a flying fox, rockwall, skatepark and climbing ropes?

i agree with you though i do think that some parents go waaaaay overboard! i ahd a mum here the other day and she followed her son and checked eerything he touched! i felt like telling her to leave the poor child alone!

We recently drove through Ingham and Miss 5 played on a round a bout! Anyone remember those? Those things you spin around and make them go so fast then feed kids and watch them puke? No, I didn't really make her puke hahaha but she sure didn't want to get off it.  We have a flying fox at a park here, but childcare centres are not allowed to use parks like that when taking kids on excursion to parks.  They can't even take them to parks where the trees are climbable.  Does that not come down to supervision?  Miss 5 has even used monkey bars!!! Although the ones she used are only suitable for very young children, by about 8 her feet would touch the ground, but she enjoys it for now.

What you have written here is thought provoking and there is a lot of truth to it....Are we over-protecting our children?  I am trying not too but it is hard in today's society and the time (in history) that we are raising them in...

My little girl was outside playing this afternoon, she was being supervised (by me) but she fell onto the gravel, not only did she get dirty but she scraped her arm...she was so proud of herself...I could do nothing to stop her fall even though I was watching her...I didn't jump up and run to her or fuss over her...I knew she wasn't seriously hurt...She learned from this today that she will fall from time to time, she will get a boo-boo and it will hgurt for a few but she also learned that it is okay to get dirty from time to time and its not going to be the end of the world should she get a scrape....

In my own long-winded way I am saying...I am trying to let my little girl deal with the less than serious bumps and bruises that go hand in hand with growing up....I am trying to NOT be over-protective and it is hard.