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Ridiculous, kids love trees. But also, rats and therefore snakes love leaves, as does fire. If you live in the woods the kids will love it, but you still h

Ridiculous, kids love trees. But also, rats and therefore snakes love leaves, as does fire. If you live in the woods the kids will love it, but you still have to keep leaves away from the perimeter of the house.

galleywest200 3y ago
You would let a small child just run around in the forest? OP said small. Where I live the woods have bears and mountain cats. A teenager may be able to navigate those dangers successfully but a small child, toddler age, would not do so alone.
- mcpackieh 3y ago
  > You would let a small child just run around in the forest? Yes of course! My entire childhood was spent running around in the woods. Bears and mountain lions are rare and most of them are more scared of you than the other way around. No more than a small handful of people are attacked by those across the entirety of North America, the last time a child was killed by a mountain lion was about 25 years ago. There were only two or three fatal mountain lion attacks against kids in the 90s, two in the 80s, and three in the 70s.. there are less than 20 of these kind of incidents in the entire 20th century across all of North America. Why the hell would you bring up such an unlikely risk? And fatal bear attacks are only marginally more common, they're still incredibly rare. Your kids are many thousands of times more likely die from choking on food than by getting attacked by an animal in the woods, do you ban grapes in your house? How did you become so cowardly? Forbidding kids from playing in the woods is absolutely pathetic, reading your comment left me with a feeling of visceral disgust.
  - 123pie123 3y ago
    as someone from the uk, I would be terrified of poisonous spiders and snakes more than bears or mountain lions
    - mcpackieh 3y ago
      Some snakes can certainly kill you, but it's rare. Partially because rattlesnakes are courteous enough to warn people who get too close (rattling) and partially because North American hospitals all know what the native venomous snakes are and have antivenom for them. Most people who get bitten by venomous snakes were deliberately messing around with them but there's a small chance that you might accidentally step on one that wasn't rattling. Copperhead bites are more common than rattlesnake bites, probably because they don't rattle as much, but they're less likely to kill. There are only one or two kids killed by snakes per decade in the US: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_snake_bites_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_snake_bites_in_t... Spider deaths are even more rare. Brown recluses are pretty spooky though.
  - DougN7 3y ago
    > most of them are more scared of you than the other way around. No more than a small handful of people are attacked I personally like to think of the stats too, but then again, why wear a seatbelt?
  - voisin 3y ago
    Also, how many early deaths are caused by air pollution from lawn mowers? As I understand it they emit orders of magnitude more harmful particulate matter than vehicles. Something like 1hr / wk being equivalent of driving a modern sedan from New York to Miami.
    - mcpackieh 3y ago
      Lawnmowers also kill people outright, about 90 people a year which is way more than bears: https://www.newsweek.com/lawnmowers-kill-more-people-bears-sharks-alligators-each-year-1529280 https://www.newsweek.com/lawnmowers-kill-more-people-bears-s... I actually went to school with a kid who was run over by a lawn mower. He survived but it chewed up the side of his leg and left him with a limp. I think he was lucky he could still walk at all.
      - voisin 3y ago
        What an amazingly useful article for this discussion! Sometimes the internet still manages to surprise me.
        mcpackieh 3y ago
        Yeah, I searched "lawn mower deaths" on DDG and that was the first result. I had to do a double take, uncanny relevance.
mathgeek 3y ago
> You would let a small child just run around in the forest? Plenty of us did as children as recently as the 90s, and even at that point it was less common than previous generations. I wouldn't do it today either, but the reasons are societal and/or emotional rather than any high statistical danger.

galleywest200 3y ago

You would let a small child just run around in the forest? OP said small. Where I live the woods have bears and mountain cats. A teenager may be able to navigate those dangers successfully but a small child, toddler age, would not do so alone.

mcpackieh 3y ago
> You would let a small child just run around in the forest? Yes of course! My entire childhood was spent running around in the woods. Bears and mountain lions are rare and most of them are more scared of you than the other way around. No more than a small handful of people are attacked by those across the entirety of North America, the last time a child was killed by a mountain lion was about 25 years ago. There were only two or three fatal mountain lion attacks against kids in the 90s, two in the 80s, and three in the 70s.. there are less than 20 of these kind of incidents in the entire 20th century across all of North America. Why the hell would you bring up such an unlikely risk? And fatal bear attacks are only marginally more common, they're still incredibly rare. Your kids are many thousands of times more likely die from choking on food than by getting attacked by an animal in the woods, do you ban grapes in your house? How did you become so cowardly? Forbidding kids from playing in the woods is absolutely pathetic, reading your comment left me with a feeling of visceral disgust.
- 123pie123 3y ago
  as someone from the uk, I would be terrified of poisonous spiders and snakes more than bears or mountain lions
  - mcpackieh 3y ago
    Some snakes can certainly kill you, but it's rare. Partially because rattlesnakes are courteous enough to warn people who get too close (rattling) and partially because North American hospitals all know what the native venomous snakes are and have antivenom for them. Most people who get bitten by venomous snakes were deliberately messing around with them but there's a small chance that you might accidentally step on one that wasn't rattling. Copperhead bites are more common than rattlesnake bites, probably because they don't rattle as much, but they're less likely to kill. There are only one or two kids killed by snakes per decade in the US: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_snake_bites_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_snake_bites_in_t... Spider deaths are even more rare. Brown recluses are pretty spooky though.
- DougN7 3y ago
  > most of them are more scared of you than the other way around. No more than a small handful of people are attacked I personally like to think of the stats too, but then again, why wear a seatbelt?
- voisin 3y ago
  Also, how many early deaths are caused by air pollution from lawn mowers? As I understand it they emit orders of magnitude more harmful particulate matter than vehicles. Something like 1hr / wk being equivalent of driving a modern sedan from New York to Miami.
  - mcpackieh 3y ago
    Lawnmowers also kill people outright, about 90 people a year which is way more than bears: https://www.newsweek.com/lawnmowers-kill-more-people-bears-sharks-alligators-each-year-1529280 https://www.newsweek.com/lawnmowers-kill-more-people-bears-s... I actually went to school with a kid who was run over by a lawn mower. He survived but it chewed up the side of his leg and left him with a limp. I think he was lucky he could still walk at all.
    - voisin 3y ago
      What an amazingly useful article for this discussion! Sometimes the internet still manages to surprise me.
      - mcpackieh 3y ago
        Yeah, I searched "lawn mower deaths" on DDG and that was the first result. I had to do a double take, uncanny relevance.

mathgeek 3y ago

> You would let a small child just run around in the forest? Plenty of us did as children as recently as the 90s, and even at that point it was less common than previous generations. I wouldn't do it today either, but the reasons are societal and/or emotional rather than any high statistical danger.