I feel like this is the sort of thing that would be amazing and fulfilling unless something ends up going wrong and you spend the rest of your life dealing with crushing guilt.
The idea of having kids is terrifying, because there would be part of me that wants to give them expanding and amazing experiences like this and part of me that wants to protect them from anything terrible happening. I feel like the only winning move is not to play.
People sometimes don't understand why I say I am glad my daughter snapped her collarbone. It is not that I want my children to ever get hurt. It is that, as a parent, I've now been through it. I've had a child break. And she healed. So now I take my kids out every weekend into the wilderness, knowing that we might not come back unscathed, but we will come back, and their lives (and mine) are better for it.
1) I am actually very safety-conscious. I have been solo hiking in the mountains and deserts for over 20 years. I know how to be safe, and how to keep my kids safe.
2) I guess in all honesty, I don't know we will be safe. But you cannot let fear drive your life, or else you will not live it.
I'd like to hear from the folks downvoting this comment. Is it parents who think I'm talking rubbish (I may very well be; I was just describing how I felt, not what I thought was objectively true)? People who thought I was criticizing the article?
I didn't downvote and it's not gray now. But I want to chime in that you aren't the only one with this fear, and it doesn't help that I know a 2-year-old who died in a canoeing accident, wearing a life-vest and with responsible adults. The canoe capsized and she got stuck in some branches and they couldn't find her in time. Every day our own mortality lurks around the edges of our own lives, but we manage to ignore it most of the time. When we feel responsible for someone else's life, though, it feels different.
this is the sort of thing that would be amazing and fulfilling unless something ends up going wrong
My own childhood experiences shaped my paranoia: riding on the rooftops of 4WDs speeding along unpopulated beaches or through hilly scrub. Swimming in water shared by sharks, sea snakes, crocodiles and box jellyfish. Poking scorpions and giant centipedes with sticks - trapping them in jars, cooking them alive with a magnifying glass. Making things go bang or set on fire, e.g. wasp nests, based on what we could find in the shed after my chemistry sets were depleted of useful materials. Many close calls, several burns, bites and stitches. Thankfully no broken bones or hospital visits.
Not the same story for several of my friends and relatives unfortunately. It comes down to luck and the wits of the people around you. That said it's not an all-or-nothing decision to let your kids explore the world.
The idea of having kids is terrifying, because there would be part of me that wants to give them expanding and amazing experiences like this and part of me that wants to protect them from anything terrible happening. I feel like the only winning move is not to play.