There are two extreme types of parents on playgrounds. Some people don’t care if their children are pushing the shovel or pushing them on the climbing frame, as long as they can look at their cell phones in peace. The others watch over their offspring like a hawk, follow their every step and constantly hold a hand to the climbing child. The majority of parents are certainly somewhere in between. But experts have the impression that there are more overprotective parents today than there used to be – and that could have consequences for children’s desire to exercise.
Scientists found evidence of this in an Australian study, for which they surveyed 645 guardians with primary school-aged children about their attitudes towards risk and injuries while playing. 78 percent of parents showed a low risk tolerance for certain play scenarios such as climbing trees. At the same time, the team of authors in the journal “Psychology of Sport and Exercise” found that children of more cautious parents were more likely to exercise less than recommended daily and play less adventurously.
According to recommendations from the World Health Organization (WHO), children and adolescents should exercise for at least an hour a day. According to the experiences of the Berlin pediatrician Jakob Maske, only a few achieve this in this country. “For most children it’s not even 30 minutes a day,” says the spokesman for the professional association of pediatricians and adolescent doctors (BVKJ). In his opinion, our lifestyle is responsible for this – and to some extent our parents too. “It’s more about driving cars. And this movement behavior of the parents rubs off on the children.”
But not only out of convenience, but also out of fear that something might happen, some parents drive their children to school, soccer practice or music lessons. Some elementary school children already carry a smartphone or smartwatch so that their parents can always reach them or see where they are thanks to the location service. Helicopter parents are those parents who are overprotective, want to protect their children around the clock and protect them from all dangers and bad experiences.
“We no longer live in times where parents raised their children on the side, five or six at a time,” explains Claudia Neumann from the German Children’s Fund. “Now it’s often the only child you pay special attention to and want to do everything right for.” This development also has something positive. As a result, childhood has a completely different meaning today. “But it’s getting out of hand in some places.”
At playgrounds, you’ll find parents who don’t let their children play in the bushes for fear of tick bites, or who come running in panic as soon as the child ventures a little higher up the climbing frame. Neumann thinks that’s wrong: “You should be allowed to do what children dare to do on their own – initially with your eyes on it, of course, but not with a perceived safety mat underneath.”
And if something does happen? Bumps, bloody lips or scraped knees – these are also part of childhood, says the expert. “You only learn to fall by falling.” The body has to find out for itself how high it can climb and how fast it can run or how best to roll over in the event of a fall.
“Of course accidents happen on playgrounds,” says the pediatrician Maske. “But the most serious accidents happen in the home.” So where children are supposedly safe. For example, they fell from a bunk bed or a ladder that was accidentally left standing, says Maske. There are also burns or poisoning with cleaning products.
According to the long-term study “KIGGS” on the health of children and young people in Germany (survey wave 2009 to 2012), 34.8 percent of accidents occur at home or in a private environment, 24.2 percent at school or in other care facilities and 17.4 percent the playground or playing sports.
Sometimes even parents themselves can be a source of danger on the playground. For example, when they lift small children onto a climbing frame that they otherwise would not have been able to climb due to their age. Or when they hold their children on their laps while they slide. This could increase the risk of leg fractures, researchers at the University of Iowa wrote in 2018 after evaluating almost 12,700 documented slipping accidents. The fractures occur when the children get their leg caught on the slide, but the adult’s momentum pushes them further.
Statutory accident insurance covers all accidents that happen to children and young people in daycare and school as well as to students. There were around a million reportable accidents last year. The majority of the injuries remained minor, says spokeswoman Elke Biesel. But there are also serious and fatal accidents in educational institutions and on the routes there. In her view, an important component for greater safety is to teach children risk skills: “So that children learn to behave safely, they must learn to deal with risks. Without risk, there is no safety.” However, this must be pedagogically guided and must not lead to injuries being accepted.
But what consequences does it have for children when parents constantly care for and protect them? “This makes children fearful and insecure,” says children’s welfare expert Neumann. It could also lead to children relying completely on their parents. “They then don’t pay as much attention themselves and, for example, they can’t find their way home alone.”
Pediatrician Maske also has good news: he sees overly cautious parents in more educated households. “These are parents who read too much on the Internet or books.” Parents who then allow themselves to be unsettled by terrible news about children who have had accidents and various advice literature. “They usually get the hang of things,” Maske knows from experience. For example, if it turns out that your children need motor support.
