Child Responsibilities Essay

Many parents may be very strict on their kids when it comes to doing things like playing with fire, using power tools, having a job, or even owning a pocket knife, but I on the other hand, disagree. Although I understand that it’s very dangerous for kids to be handling such things, it also builds their character. You wouldn’t just allow any kid to be in charge of such thing, they must have maturity and responsibility up to a certain point to be able to be trusted in these situations. A speech titled â€Å"5 Dangerous Things you should let your kid do† by Gever Tulley on TED.com talks about kids who are allowed and even encouraged to do things most parents would never dare to let their kids be involved in. Tulley discusses how kids who participate in these activities build strong character. It’s good for kids to be in these kinds of environments as long as they already have responsibility up to a certain level. An issue similar to this that is thrown around in politic and economic discussions now days is child labor. Should we allow kids to have jobs? Should families who are economically struggling allow their kids to work in order to bring in enough food and necessities to the family? I don’t see a problem in child labor. Like Tulley, I agree with these ideas and think they build better personalities and make a child more understanding. Although, I do not think that a family should be able to force a kid to work, it’s also important to a kid’s childhood that they get a chance to be a kid, and not have to worry about work. The earlier a person starts working, the bigger chance they have to be successful in life. I can understand why some parent’s wouldn’t be willing to let their kids be in such environments, these environments can be very unsafe sometimes. A kid could have the possibility of cutting a finger off, or doing something that they would have to live with for the rest of their lives, but with adult supervision this is less likely to happen. Although UNICEF has stated that children are more likely to get hurt then adults because they have yet to learn what not to do, we have to understand that getting hurt can happen in any activity that a person participates in, that’s just part of life.