Today I brought my two young boys (2 and 4) to the local Playcentre. Playcentre is a state funded facility with fabulously energetic, paid child care workers who genuinely seem to love their jobs and respect their employer; fascinating! Parents are encouraged to stay with their child while at Playcentre, although this becomes optional once your child reaches two and a half. The facility itself is absolutely decked out. There is a large outdoor play area, partly covered with transparent plastic for rainy days and shaded areas for hot days. In this space there is a playground, balance beams, a huge pile of wood chips for the kids to climb on and move around complete with wheelbarrows and shovels available at the base of the pile, large wooden boxes to climb on and jump off of, a vegetable garden and apple tree for the kids to water, enjoy and harvest, a water station complete with tubes running out of it for the kids to explore and some kind of soapy foam to add texture and fun. There is also a play house, a clay station, a large sandpit, and my all-time favourite: The tool station. My boys, I must add, are thrilled to bits with the tool station. This station is decked out with kids building tools; hammers, saws, screw drivers, drills, clamps, magnets, wooden blocks, bolts, nails and screws. These are all real, metal toys, by the way. Heaven!
While I’m not sure what makes up for the difference, I am absolutely certain that no kid’s centre of any sort in Canada
would offer up anything sharp and metallic to kids. The general rules for toys in Canada, as far as I can tell are as follows: Nothing with a string long enough to choke a child with, ie- no more woolen mitts attached by strings, and certainly no pull-along toys (whereas the Buzzy Bee, including long extension lead, is a national icon here). Magnets are absolutely forbidden. Didn’t you hear about the two boys who were playing with magnets and one of them ended up swallowing two of them? He ended clamping together his intestine as a result. The boy died, in the end, from ingesting the two small magnets. Small choking hazards are not recommended for children under 3. No Metal toys as they can be used as weapons. And certainly no tools. Tools break many of Canada’s “rules” regarding safety. Nails, for example, are a small metal choking hazard that may magnetize to another piece of metal in the digestive tract. Danger, danger and danger! New Zealanders are amazingly calm when it comes to parenting, and it is only to their children’s advantage. This free range parenting trend allows kids to explore on their own and maintain their incredible self esteems.
There is a road we use almost every day as it is on the way to my daughter’s school. The bridge crosses a river and is called a “one-way bridge.” The funny thing about the one-way bridge here is that both directions of traffic can use it, just not at the same time. There is a yield sign that detremines who has the right-of-way, although I’ve seen more than one car have to reverse back up the hill to get out of the way of an oncoming vehicle. The other interesting thing about this bridge in particular is that there is no rail on either side of it and, as I mentioned earlier, is only just able to fit one vehicle at a time. It is very narrow. This takes some serious concentration on my part to watch for oncoming vehicles and keep our family van on the road while crossing the school bridge. When the river floods during heavy rains, you have to navigate your way across the bridge and through the water. While I feel terrified at the possibility of falling from the bridge (be it that it is only a few feet above the water) it also makes me giggle every time we cross it. New Zealand is known for offering adventure to its visitors, who would have thought it would come in the form of an everyday road in town! The bridge was one of the first “attractions” we showed grandma when she arrived over summer holidays.
When I signed my daughter up for soccer a few weeks ago I said “So I guess she’ll just need to bring along her runners and some water at game time?”
“Oh no,” said the woman, “I mean she could wear shoes if she wanted, but most of the kids just run around in bare feet.” This comment immediately made me feel self-conscious. It made me feel a bit gear-head’ish. As if putting my daughter in shoes was over the top kind of parenting. Sure enough, when we arrived at the field, only a handful of kids were wearing their shoes, my daughter being one of them. We have a lot yet to learn about NZ culture, especially with regards to chilling out, and allowing kids the freedom to feel the grass beneath their toes!
Great read. There is never “too much” when it comes to your child’s safety.