Managing Risk
This webpage comes with a strict public health warning. We don’t think you should read it. It is highly dangerous, seriously toxic, and those of a nervous disposition ought to steer well clear. Only read if you’re not prone to bouts of risk aversion.
It’s a sad state of the times that for a lot of children, risk taking during play is a rare thing indeed. For a whole host of reasons children’s freedoms to take risks are being eroded by a culture of safety that’s gone completely bonkers. Children are being told not to run in the playground, conkers and marbles are being confiscated at the school gate, and parents are being told not to bake for the school fete because there’s no way of checking for food safety standards. And beyond the clubs and institutions things are getting just as scatty. The humble tree, for example, is being forbidden as a piece of natural play equipment, bespoke rope swings are being cut down in most parks, rocks are just, well, they’re just too hard, and water that’s deeper than two millimetres, well that’s just asking for trouble isn’t it?
Crazy though some of this might seem, it’s becoming a serious issue. We know that for normal healthy survival and development children need to test themselves against the environment. It’s not enough for a child to simply be told ‘how dangerous’ something is, if that something isn’t fixed within the child’s set of life experiences. The real danger is not so much children coming to harm from taking risks, but coming to harm for not taking risks. A lot of children are growing up without the capacity to cope with future dangers because they have no risk-taking strategies. Risk taking is highly important to children’s health and wellbeing now and in the future.
Eden’s play project has taken a pro-active stance to inject a little risk taking into most of its activities; from hanging bespoke nets, ladders, ropes, and swings from all sorts of trees, to building rafts out of junk, clambering through mud, and playing with fire, to name just a few. Of course, we’re not irresponsible, as we still carry out our risk assessments, the only difference being we use a risk-benefit approach; that is, we not only assess the risks and do our best to remove hazards, but we also assess what the benefits would be for some risks. If the benefits outweigh the risks then they take precedence over the risks. In essence, what we're creating is a 'controlled risk environment' for children's play.
'Mud between your Toes' aims to connect children and young people to the world they live in - to experience, understand and celebrate their sense of place and purpose in the natural world and in their communities.
Eden is a charity and we need help to fund our work. Making a donation will enable more children and young people to take part in our Mud between your Toes programme.