This story still presents the endless conundrum between avoiding hurt and letting people learn and gain skills. Assuming the world was mostly the same as nowadays, by the time your children are parenting, would they have the skills to notice sharp corners if they never experienced them ?
I think my intuitive approach here would be to put some not too soft padding (which is effectively close to what you did, it’s still an unpleasant experience hitting against that even with the cloth).
What’s missing is how to teach against existential risks. There’s an extent to which actually bleeding profusely from a sharp corner can help learn walking carefully, anticipating dangers, and that these skills do generalize to many situations and allows one to live a long fruitful life. (This last sentence does not pertain to the actual age of your children and doesn’t address ideal ages at which you can actually learn the correct and generalizable thing). If you have control on the future, remove all the sharp edges forever. If you don’t, you remove the hard edges when they’re young, instore them again when they can/should learn to recognize what typically are hard edges and must be accounted for.
It’s a nice pic and moment, I very much like this comic and the original scene. It might be exaggerating a trait (here by having the girl be particularly young) for comedic effect but the Hogfather seems right. I think I was around 9 when I got my first sword, around 10 for a sharp knife. I have a scar in my left palm from stabbing myself with that sharp knife as a child while whittling wood for a bow. It hurt for a bit, and I learned to whittle away from me or do so more carefully. I’m pretty sure my life is better for it and (from having this nice story attached to it) I like the scar.
This story still presents the endless conundrum between avoiding hurt and letting people learn and gain skills.
Assuming the world was mostly the same as nowadays, by the time your children are parenting, would they have the skills to notice sharp corners if they never experienced them ?
I think my intuitive approach here would be to put some not too soft padding (which is effectively close to what you did, it’s still an unpleasant experience hitting against that even with the cloth).
What’s missing is how to teach against existential risks. There’s an extent to which actually bleeding profusely from a sharp corner can help learn walking carefully, anticipating dangers, and that these skills do generalize to many situations and allows one to live a long fruitful life. (This last sentence does not pertain to the actual age of your children and doesn’t address ideal ages at which you can actually learn the correct and generalizable thing). If you have control on the future, remove all the sharp edges forever.
If you don’t, you remove the hard edges when they’re young, instore them again when they can/should learn to recognize what typically are hard edges and must be accounted for.
“You can’t give her that!′ she screamed. ‘It’s not safe!’
IT’S A SWORD, said the Hogfather. THEY’RE NOT MEANT TO BE SAFE.
‘She’s a child!’ shouted Crumley.
IT’S EDUCATIONAL.
‘What if she cuts herself?’
THAT WILL BE AN IMPORTANT LESSON.”
― Terry Pratchett, Hogfather
https://www.reddit.com/r/hellsomememes/comments/do8xcv/an_important_lesson/
It’s a nice pic and moment, I very much like this comic and the original scene. It might be exaggerating a trait (here by having the girl be particularly young) for comedic effect but the Hogfather seems right.
I think I was around 9 when I got my first sword, around 10 for a sharp knife. I have a scar in my left palm from stabbing myself with that sharp knife as a child while whittling wood for a bow. It hurt for a bit, and I learned to whittle away from me or do so more carefully. I’m pretty sure my life is better for it and (from having this nice story attached to it) I like the scar.