Overly safe playgrounds aren’t challenging enough for children’s bodies or minds, says a pediatrics professor at the University of B.C. — and they’re no fun, either.
Developmental psychologist Mariana Brussoni says hovering parents and nervous school administrators have created a generation of boring playgrounds. The result: anxious, unfit young adults.
“Kids born in the ’90s are now adults, so we do have evidence that their anxiety and depression levels are higher, because you have helicopter parents who swoop down to take care of their kids,” she said Tuesday.
“There has never been a safer time for children than there is now. … Yet there is the perception that the world is a more dangerous place.”