We have so much fear instilled in us from a young age. Fear that stops us exploring our environment and our full potential as humans. There is so much focus on what is safe and unsafe, that the natural instinct that we are born with, an instinct that alerts us to danger is killed off.
No child comes into this world with a desire to hurt themselves, they are very good at recognizing danger, especially when we allow them to explore their environment.
I live in a truck, which has a tail lift at the back, the tail is elevated so climbing up the steps t is the way into and out of my home. I like to sit out on this space, it is sheltered by some ancient olive trees and I always feel so relaxed when I step out onto their each morning. The space is open all around and my 2 year old has never fallen off of it, before she could walk she would climb up and down the steps by herself, I was always close by, but I let her figure her own way down. She would spend ages throwing things off the sides of the tail, totally aware that they were falling to the ground.
Totally aware that if she fall off the side she would hit the ground.
You can see the height of the tail just on the left of this photo, the orange material is hanging don from it, the only other one I had was of my 2 year old climbing it naked and I don't really want to put that photo on the internet.
I have had both family and friends tell me that it made them really nervous watching her crawl up the steps by herself and then have her throw things off the edge.
What if she fell, what if....?
I was always close to her, just not too close . Our children pick up on our energy, so when we are nervous and scared, then that in turn makes them nervous and scared. They learn from our reactions.
I have seen kids fall off walls because their parents yell at them to be careful, that yell breaking their concentration and balance. Making them suddenly fearful about something they were confident about just moments before. It's not easy to take a step back, in today's society so many of us do not trust our children when it comes to safety. It is totally understandable when they are next to a busy road, but when it comes to being in a more natural environment, we really need to learn to take a step back.
Because when we do, our children grow up to be more confident, to trust in their own problem solving and decision making skills. From a young age we are showing them that we trust them and they in turn continue to listen to their own natural instinct and have huge faith in their ability to learn things for themselves.
As parents we have the choice to allow our children to become powerful or to take that power from them and place it in our own hands and in the hands of others, those people who we hand them over to.
I do not wish to offend anyone when I use the term 'hand them over to' because their are children who attend educational facilities and because of their relationship with their parent or parents get to hold onto their power. But there are so many who do not, who are expected to be as submissive at home as they are at school.
I really believe that we are failing our children because we are not trusting them and listening to them. It starts at such a young age as well, so young that many are not aware of it. By instilling our fear and anxiety n them, we are preparing them for a life of submission.
We need to rethink how we act around our children and allow them to explore, to discover things for themselves and just let them be children. Because, If we really want things to change, then we need to change how we interact with children, how we interact with the world.