I won’t do it. I will not take the “Moms for Mouth Guards” pledge. I will not add one more thing to the vast arsenal of helmets, pads, cups, and guards intended to protect our preschoolers, kindergardener and third grader from every conceivable injury they could suffer while doing just about anything. I also refuse to purchase such glorious innovations as “potty mitts” or “baby knee pads.” And, just to top it all off, I’m going to let my four-year-old ride her scooter in a circle in our garage without a helmet. And I’m not even going to watch.

Not everything in life should require the packing of a bag. Soccer practice for 5-year-olds should involve sneakers and a ball, not a mouthguard and a helmet. Learning to walk requires no protective gear. Riding on the kind of tricycle that has a handle behind it for the parent to push, ditto. When my kid turns to me as I load her into a wagon and asks “where’s my helmet?” I know we’ve gone too far. We’re gearing ourselves out of the game, and sending a message that the only really safe place in the world is snugly ensconced in front of the TV.

To me, every additional piece of gear that any given sport requires is just another reason not to play. Has any really dedicated hockey player ever thrown aside her stick because she doesn’t want to put that stinky mouth guard in her mouth one more time? No, but it’s one more straw for the kid who’s not aiming to play for the Olympic women’s team one day. I’ve seen my kids walk away from their bikes because they can’t find their helmets. I know plenty of families who’ve taken one look at the cost of a lacrosse helmet and taken their kid to soccer instead–and there are arguments being made to price kids out of that sport, too: the helmet pictured here will run you about $40.

Pro players need a helmet to head a speeding ball. There’s probably an argument to be made for using one at college level as well; but these things trickle down, and the end result of musings like “she should get used to it early” and “he wants to look like the big kids” is tiny kids with giant bike helmets wobbling around as their mother wheels them through town on a stroller-trike, and a bag full of gear that’s bigger than the kid for nearly every other sport you can name. Skiing requires skis, and a helmet makes sense–but I propose that my four-year-old daughter could learn to play hockey without a special pair of groin-protecting shorts under the padded shorts she already wears.

Of course all of this is well-intentioned. And somewhere out there is a first-grader who had all of her teeth knocked out by a soccer ball, and right next door to her is a child who caught a terrible infection from a shopping cart handle and a dozen toddlers who went to the emergency room with coffee table inflicted injuries. It happens. But every mother who runs inside for a helmet when her kids start sledding down a slight ridge or swaddles her toilet-training kid up in a set of “potty mitts” or campaigns for the removal of a “dangerous” piece of playground equipment is sending a unintended message: the world’s not safe. Better just to stay home.

*9 bike helmets (at least). 5 hockey. 6 skiing. 1 lacrosse. And 3 from a misguided belief that, now that we live in rural New England, we would somehow begin riding horses.

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