This is exactly how I did it with my two. For the most part, I just let "pain" happen. You knew it was going to, and it was hard not to say anything. It didn

This is exactly how I did it with my two. For the most part, I just let "pain" happen. You knew it was going to, and it was hard not to say anything. It didn't always happen, but it usually did. This is stuff like jumping off swings, "sword fights" with sticks, snowball fights, sledding, etc. When it did happen, they always look over to see your reaction. Mostly it was a raised eyebrow or smile and a small shake of the head. Most of the time they went right back to doing what they were doing.. but generally didn't get hurt again. Progress, right? For light "damage", I'd warn them, "uh, that's not such a good idea..." or I'd force them to add some safety equipment to try to mitigate the damage (knee pads, long pants, gloves, that sort of thing). They've got a few scars, but no broken bones - probably equal parts luck and caution on the kid's part. Tree-climbing (and other forms of climbing) were the hardest things to deal with because the skill and the limit testing is so important, but the consequences can so variable. Anything over that, I'd be heavily involved - supervision, stopping them, etc. On the other hand, there were quite a number of things I tried to get them to do that were pretty dangerous, but they wouldn't do.. I tried really hard to get them into Karting, but no luck. One of the two, the older one, has taken to climbing walls, but the other hasn't. I think they've developed pretty good self confidence and risk management. They still sword fight like idiots, tho. That ALWAYS ends up in tears..