If you don't fall down and scrape your knee when you're eight, how else do you learn to pick yourself up, brush yourself off and keep on running? These are basic living skills that you'll desperately need at 22 when the rent is due, the car broke down and your dentist is telling you there's a root canal in your future.

I am more aghast at the scrapes and bruises my kids get at the park or even playing with each other, than they are. If I ask them how they hurt themselves or even if the scrapes hurt, they just look at me strangely, declare, "it doesn't hurt" and go about their business. Since I don't want my kids to be afraid to play, I try to let them have at, but as a mother, I can't help but cringe whenever I discover the kids have new boo-boos (especially when they brag how they got them!). They will have to put me on sedatives if my kids come home in 10 years or so bragging about their plans to sky-dive or bungie-jump!

so true !