Let's all join the movement for Free-Range Children. Spend a few minutes with this baby at play (video). (It's like you can see the self-construction happening before your eyes.)
Now that you have seen what infants at play really look like (free-ranging), get young children out of all those containers:
1. Put the crib in the trash: keep the mattress and just set it on the floor (make sure the rest of the room is child-safe. Children can be independent getting in and out of bed and are never in danger from those drop-side disasters.
2. Ditch the playpen jail: just lay out a blanket for the infants, once children are moving, LET THEM MOVE and try to keep up (that's your job as the parent)!
3. Skip the Johnny Jump Up: Just DON'T do it. Put your child on a blanket on the floor or outside in the grass. Stay close, watch what happens. Watch!
4. Unbuckle from the car seat (unless they're in a moving car): I know this is a toughy, but do what you can. Infants presently are spending more time in their infant car seat than ever and much more than they should.
5. Please no 'walkers': Not only are these quite dangerous (I'm pretty sure they're banned now), but they can really give children quite a false sense of the extent of their physical body at precisely the time they're learning about such things.
There. Now doesn't that feel better? Keep in mind that we're not talking about just setting children in the middle of a field and walking away. This is about creating the least restrictive environment that is safe for them to explore and develop. It's not abandonment; it's freedom within limits. It's what helps us all, whether infants, adolescents, or adults.
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