Risky Play

Non-Fiction

Pages: 70 Ratings:

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70 years ago, children enjoyed a lot more freedom than they do today. The time allowed to play often stretched for days at a time. In many cases, this allowed children to become highly creative while finding exciting opportunities to play unsupervised.

No one seemed concerned about a child climbing the highest tree or going on a picnic or fishing, unaccompanied by adults. Even an overnight camping trip for a group of under 12s was usually acceptable as long as it wasn’t raining.

In turn, the ability to make important decisions and take risks, given the freedom experienced, built resilience in children that we don’t see anymore.

Today’s children are often fearful and turn to their parents, who supervise everything they do. Helicopter parents hover over their children’s every move to ensure that they come to no harm. In doing so, the parent inadvertently causes more harm, making the child/children dependent on the parent for even the simplest decision.

Born into a sixth-generation Northern Tasmanian farming family, Frances Stancombe McCowan’s early years involved many activities children do not usually experience. The farm was once considered a remote location, and for several years, McCowan was taught at home before later attending MLC Launceston.

After training as a nurse at the Launceston General Hospital, she moved to Sydney. Later, she studied child and family health, including a postgraduate degree, and became a manager at a small Family Care Center in Eastern Sydney. It was gratifying work, but McCowan noticed that parents were no longer allowing children the level of risk-taking that was once considered acceptable during play. Hence, the book title Risky Play came into play.

McCowan then became a content writer and started work on my memoir, Risky Play. For the last 55 years, she has lived in Eastern Sydney with her husband and has one son and three adult grandchildren.