Reacting to my children’s “games” a life lesson

I walked into my front room to see my son have one foot on the back of our sofa and the other on a free standing wooden chair that was slightly rocking. Around him was a wooden cabinet, a table, and various toys also with lots of wonderful hard edges to really hurt yourself on.......

So what did I do? Did I:

1. Rush over and calmly help him down
2. Rip open my shirt to reveal my superhero costume and fly to his rescue
3. Scream "WHAT ARE YOU DOING" in a load shocked/worried tone to startle him and increase his chances of falling

Of course it was 3.

Thankfully he kept his balance and I helped him down and tried to explain to a 4 year old why what he was doing was a risky game even if he was being Ben 10, which was of course about as productive as trying to teach Tank how to do equations. I walked out the room shaking my head at the foolishness of my own natural reaction.... I might as well have opened the door and shouted "BOO!!!"

I wonder how many people have crossed the road not looking only for an oncoming car to be hurtling towards them when someone shouts "watch out" making said person stop walking increasing the probability of the impact. You could shout "RUN" but then who runs on the command of strangers, you would still stop to see firstly what obnoxious person is trying to enforce exercise on you as you leisurely walk to your destination, and then further time would elapse as you realise your about to become road kebab and the instruction to run was actually meant to help (or was it mwhaha).

I know that intervening with silence is the way forward, I know this because I have watched enough superhero films. Superman for example doesn’t rescue the woman from a falling building by screaming like a 1960's hippie getting a bikini wax for the first time! No, he looks confident swoops in and bish bash bosh the woman is saved.

A child’s ignorance of danger and their enthusiasm of the game in hand is probably keeping them as safe as they can be from the obvious dangers that us old farts instantly identify as soon as we walk into the room to find our most precious creations swinging from the light shade trying to hook their feet under the curtain pole so they can hang upside down..... But next time this happens I will try my hardest to be option 'B' above