Do you (or would you) let your kids play in the woods? - Page 4

[dawncayden]

It makes me so happy that there are so many kids enjoying nature!

Way to go!

[peainthepod]

Not until they're much older. Our acreage is mostly wooded and we have lots of wild animals including apex predators like bear and cougar, as well as moose, which are extremely dangerous if disturbed. And our neighbors all hunt on their land and I'd need to be able to trust that the littles wouldn't wander off the property. We do love the woods--we just go out together for now.

[becoming]

No, people shoot guns in the woods behind/beside our house all the time, even though we live in a neighborhood with a homeowner's association! (We're in the Deep South, can you tell? haha) We do play in the woods WITH the kids, though.

[Owen'nZoe]

Originally Posted by Okapi 

Originally Posted by Hey Mama! 

The thing I worry about most there is ticks. 

This is why DD will likely never get to run wild in the woods like my brothers & I did as kids (and, FTR, by the time I was 5 or 6 - so my brothers would have been 2 or 3 - we were allowed to go out together in the woods on our property, and when they were closer to 4 or 5, that area expended). When I was 9 we moved to a much larger property surrounded by woods and didn't really have limits, just safety precautions. Generally, we didn't go that far off our property, though. Sadly, while my parents still live at the same place, it is now completely infested with ticks. We used to see maybe one or two over an entire year between all of us, now my dad will find a couple every day. I can't even let DD walk with him up to the back field to feed the horses unless it's the dead of winter, and that is entirely over shortly mown grass.

Really curious - how does keeping them out of the woods keep them from getting ticks? We're finding several a month on my son, who picks them up at afterschool. The afterschool has no trees, no gardens, and most of the playground is covered with rubber or cement.