I feel its ok to say ‘be careful’ its much like when someone leaves your home and you say ‘Drive safe’ …you are not saying that normally they are a bad driver but instead you are expressing your wish for them to make their destination safely. its the same with our kids. They are climbing in a tree and we are aware of all the dangers but we also know that they need to be able to have the freedom to grow so instead of saying “get down from there …you could fall and brake your neck”…we simply say “be careful” and we hold all our fears inside.

These are great ideas but, really, in the moment who can think of anything to say except “Be Careful”.

Right…I’m always cautioning my kids to be careful. In all honesty in the time it takes you to point out a situation and have a discussion the kid could have fallen down and cracked their skull. This kind of thing seems senseless to me – explain things when the kid is not in danger of hurting themself.

That should be the branches would not have been strong enough.

We were never allowed to climb our trees. We never got beyond the trunk of our fruit trees before we were spotted. They didn’t want us to break the tree or knock the fruit off. I’m sure they were more worried about us falling off or getting splinters. I would have panicked if I was told I might fall and hurt myself. I think I tried when I was about 4 y.o. and the tree branches would have been thick and strong enough either.

I don’t see anything wrong with be careful, cheers.

I will continue to say be careful. I’m not going to stop him trying things. But I believe its important to teach children to listen. If I say be careful then he learns that he’s in a situation where he could possibly get caught and learns for himself to figure out how and avoid it. I also say no to him. I’m a terrible parent.

Great suggestions if the child understands that language. My 4 year old has Down syndrome, has a hearing loss and is pretty much non-verbal. She has no fear and no danger awareness. She doesn’t understand these type of instructions. I have to keep it very simple.

These are great suggestions that build and nurture the child’s strengths in a positive way rather than creating a deficit based mindset. Children need to learn problem solving skills over fear in my view.

I love this article. It’s so refreshing to read suggestions for what to say or do instead of what you shouldn’t be saying or doing.

It’s a bit of a reflex to say this – I don’t stop them doing things, though.