When my kid was two, she was expert at removing the childproof caps off meds, only did it once thou. Don't think she liked the Ipecap I gave her after she got into the Tylenol. Also, she was Houdini with a car seat.

They are clever. Course, back in my day, parents weren't quite so litigious. If a kid hurt themselves doing something stupid, it was the kid's fault and not the manufacturer's.

Yes kids are tough; they bounce just as your heart drops.

Congrads on preschool. Scary isn't it?

The best one I ever saw was on TV, where parents had videotaped their two sons escaping from their bedroom. They had resorted on using two child gates, one on top of the other in the doorway. The oldest, in a blanket sleeper, climbed up over the top of the two gates and down the other side, then released the latch on the bottom gate to let his brother out.

It is rather amazing just how resilent a child is. My children (don't tell anyone) used to play on a rock outcropping near our place. None ever took a dive off of it.

The next lot was used by a construction company to store those concrete baricades they use to block off sections of a highway when they are doing roadwork. 4 feet high, they used to walk along them like a tightrope. None of the three ever fell off causing injuries more than scrapes and bruises.

My oldest, when she was 2 learned not to put a key in a electrical socket. Lesson learned once.

And don't get me started on what I used to do in my day....

I had big-boy bed rails for a few months. But then, I rarely fell out of bed -- as far as I can remember.

I didn't play too unsafely, all things considered -- we spent a lot of time hanging out in the driveway or riding our bikes or playing catch in the street, but the street was only 12 houses long, and we all knew to stay off 118th Ave (that's where all the cars were; that's the main road in my parents' development). I did, however, often ride my bike five miles down the street to the movie theater or the mall when I was as young as 11 or 12.

I was also bookish, geeky, and a homebody, so I spent most of my time inside anyway.

My mother said all those times I fell out of bed and onto my head is what gives me my quirky personality and should be thankful to her.

Mom is always right. ;-)

My mother used to tell the story of the workman who installed the privacy chain on the front door where we lived, and challenging (me or my brother -- versions varied) to try pulling the door open beyond the length of the chain.

Whichever kid it was, pulled the screws right out of the wood, and there was apparently much language a child that age shouldn't hear.

It took only one accident riding on the back of a bicyle to learn to wear shoes everytime. Did it in front of the parents- no big deal until my foot got caught in the spokes and a big toe nail removed in the process. It wasn't the parents who insisted on proper foot wear. The parents said it would grow back no big deal. I continued to ride on the back side of bicycles no big deal then.

No way will I allow my kids to do that.
Are parents smarter or more protective?

My wife was brought up by a very protective mother, and while she understands that pain doesn't last forever, she still is sometimes squeamish about the risk of even minor pain to the point of paralysis.

I think letting kids learn how to cope with pain is far smarter than treating the mere risk of a skinned knee as justifying the family equivalent of an orange alert.

My brother and I grew up on the tail end of the era in which "boys will be boys."

Our toys were BB guns, sling shots, bull whips, pocket knives, firecrackers, chemistry sets, bow and arrows, lawn darts, go carts, mini bikes, and many other "deadly" items.

How in the heck did we survive? I'm sure that any parent who would supply their children with this kind of arsenal today would end up in court.

My mother did everything "right" when she was pregnant with me. When she was pregnant with my sister she drank and smoked. We both turned out fine (yes, I'm being nice towards my sister). In fact, she ended up making more money than me, if that's means anything.