There are two extremes here that I can illustrate from personal life.
My brother was one of those kids that needed to have a helmet strapped to his head and a pillow stapled to his butt. The injuries I can remember include:
Riding his bike into a parked car. He was not a little kid and had been riding a bike for years; just tried to play chicken with a parked Jeep. He jammed his two top teath up and almost lost them. He never could explain why he did this. Maybe he thought it would swerve first...
Pretended he was a whale at Sea World and (in our built in pool) tried to beach himself by swimming underwater as fast as possible and when he reached the end of the pool, tried to "jump out" like a whale would. Well, since he didn't use his feet to push off the bottom, and since he didn't have flippers... he feel short and only his head beached, cracking hard agains the concrete. He lost a chunk of fleash from his chin; a chuck that was never recovered and still has a scar on his chin.
Playing on a late 80' / early 90's home gym, he tried to climb it without using his feat... he fell short and literally feel azz first. He feel on a bolt and was left with a hexagon scar on his azz that could very well still be there.
Playing around at a friends house, he jumped on a wood burning stove (dunno why) and his right forearm landed on the top, resulting in second degree burns. He didn;t tell anyone for several hours because he didn't wan't to leave his friends house. He eventually told someone and went to the ER, but the resulting infection had so nice halucinations assosiated with it. He woke up at one point and started screaming for "his green". "Where's my green? I need my green?" Still not sure what that meant, but it was funny as hell.
He jumped off a rock in Arizona (we all were) and broke his foot. Again... never told anyone because he wanted to keep playing on the rocks.
Literally, from the age of 5 to the age of 15 he visited the ER more times than Tim "the Toolman" Taylor. He broke bones, had serious preventable infections, and injuries resulting in some serious scars.
When he reached 16, the odds were elevated and it is a miricle that he is alive still. He was stupid enough to video tape most of his idiotic "adventures" that usually involved explosives and high speed; things that really make for some awesome EMS calls...
ON THE OTHER HAND...
My cousin (12 y/o) can't run, throw, or jump. He takes no risks because he never leaves the computer room, even when he comes to visit us. My goal this next year is to take him into the woods and turn him into a kid. I can't believe he is my cousin. He is all about Starbucks, McDonalds, and Video Games. Mind you, I like those same things, but the kid tried to chase the Hound this last month (forced "playing" time") and didn't know how to run. He fell, scraped his knee, and cried until we let him back on the computer. IT IS SAD!
So, two extremes... One is a bubble boy, a product of society's urbanization that has left us all dependant on McDonalds, Starbucks, WalMart, and the computer. the other, needed a bubble and large amounts of sedation. Could we find a middle ground? GET DIRTY... HAVE FUN... GET OUTSIDE... DON'T STICK FIRECRACKERS IN WATERMELONS AND SEE HOW LONG IT TAKES YOU TO RUN AWAY FROM THEM BEFORE THEY EXPLODE!!! (My brother)...