The mistake we make is in thinking that some things are dangerous and other things are not dangerous.

It is not one thing or the other - all things at any moment carry the potential to be dangerous.

The issue is not in restricting which activities children should engage in based on their danger level, but in training children to recognize the dangers inherent in whatever they are doing and so enable them to make their own decisions as to how far they can go and what they can and can’t do - not based on some list of forbidden activities (like it was the Roman Catholic Church or something) but rather on their own intuitions as to whether or not they can do that action safely.

This picture illustrates that perfectly, doesn’t it? These kids are having a ball … and who would deny them that when they themselves are not in the least concerned that this might be beyond their abilities.

No, such restrictive behavior is simply a result of a control system that breeds fear in children and disempowers them from making their own decisions about what they can and can’t do.

When they get afraid of feedback from the control system (i.e., their parents) they stop doing adventurous things… and that is a much much bigger problem, is it not?