wearwell wrote:Bez wrote:wearwell wrote:I notice that nobody has answered my question about whether or not they would encourage their kids to wear ear-phones in the road.
I guess this is because everybody agrees that ear phones are dangerous in traffic.
Not an unreasonable point but there's a difference, which is that kids are still learning how to deal with traffic visually, let alone aurally. Plus pretty much every parent is paranoid about their own kids and will normally take reasonable measures to reduce risk to them as a general policy, and frankly it's not humanly possible to look up research into the realities of every perceived risk. That's why "common sense" is quite acceptable for personal decisions, it just doesn't justify population policy decisions.
.........
So that's a no then.
I don't think that it is reasonable to draw that assumption. If I said I didn't 'let' my children wear ear phones in traffic, it wouldn't necessarily be because I think they are dangerous.
Children have less capability to judge whether something is a distraction for them, and they also have less risk awareness. Part of my job as a parent is teaching them that. So, I will teach them that talking on the phone, using ear phones, listening to music, talking to their friends, or trying to do anything else whilst walking or cycling can be a distraction, and isn't something they should do in traffic. When I feel that they are capable of making such decisions for themselves, I will leave it to their judgement.
So, it isn't because I feel that ear phones are dangerous, but rather that they *could* increase risk, and I'm not sure that my children are yet capable of making the right determination in that regard.
I have similar reasons for not letting my 7 year old do some things that his older sister is allowed to do.
Ear phones are just objects. They can't by themselves, in any way be dangerous.
“In some ways, it is easier to be a dissident, for then one is without responsibility.”
― Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom