We were at the park today enjoying the sunshine and my 3 year old decided to climb a tree. Soon his 5 year old sister and their friends joined them and were laughing with glee. I stood close enough by to help if anyone needed it but let them have their fun.
Two other children ran over and started to climb as well, until their mother appeared, glaring at me, and snapping at her children, “The Brown family does not climb trees!” Her kids really wanted to climb, so she had to repeat herself a few times, finally resorting to counting. As she dragged her little ones away kicking and crying, she shot me a look to kill.
I have seen that look before, but it is usually reserved for parents allowing really bad behavior – you know when the kid is melting down in the store or running around and screaming in a restaurant – not for climbing a tree in the park.
Instead of getting offended, I got curious. What crime had I committed by letting my kids climb trees in the park? I loved climbing trees as a kid. It was such fun. Had it somehow become a crime in the last 30 years? Was the other mother worried that it was unsafe? That somehow trees near a playground were not meant for climbing? Or was it just that she didn’t want her kids climbing for whatever reason and the fact that I was allowing my kids to climb made it harder for her to enforce her rules with her kids?
Has something like this ever happened to you? I would love your thoughts and feedback, especially if it has become a crime to climb trees in public parks.
5 Comments
Just let your kids climb the treas. Its great exersise and dont be worried they might fall… falling down is a natural lesson for kids and teach them what their personal limits are
just make sure they cant get hurt falling down, and also if you deny tthem climbing the treeas they would do it anyways when you were not watching only difference would be they had no training doing it at all and most likely would get hurt .
I think you should be able to let your children explore and live life. That’s part of being a kid. I climb trees for a living and am looking to do some recreation climbing at some parks so I have the same question. Is it ok to climb trees in parks?
Overprotective moms out there…get a grip! I let my kids cliff dive off snowy mountains,run steep moguls and do back flips off of ski jumps. Yes, I applaud the moms who let their kids climb trees. Guess what? Mine did and still do.
I was in a park today where my kids were climbing a giant tree that we “visit” often. The tree has limbs that the kids love to balance and bounce on. I was approached by a woman who told me that it was irresponsible of me to allow my kids to bounce on the limb. She insisted that they would be hurt (I was standing right next to him) and that the branch would eventually break. This was a very large limb and I feel quite positive that the 70-80 lbs that were bouncing did not risk breaking the limb (or I wouldn’t have let them play there!) She said I should use some common sense and not teach my children such poor behavior. To make matters worse, another woman approached, and started in on me stating “I work at the Montessori School down the street and I would NEVER teach my children to do what you allow your children to!” I swear we weren’t doing anything out of line! 2 of the kids were sitting on a branch bouncing up and down. Now to be fair, the limb was moving up and down quite a bit….but it was very large and strong!
I felt like a horrible mom when all I was trying to do was have some fun outdoors with my children. I climbed and played in trees all the time when I was a kid. Are there rules to tree climbing that I’m not aware of? Maybe there’s some basic tree climbing etiquette I just wasn’t aware of?
It is okay to climb trees at the park. Other parents are required to make their own rules about that and it isn’t your responsibility to adhere to rules you don’t believe in.