Dangerous Superhero Costumes

This Is London (UK) reported yesterday that British doctors are warning of the dangers of allowing children to wear superhero costumes.

Doctors say the increasingly popular trend of dressing up like superheroes can cause youngsters to hurt themselves as they try to copy the characters' death-defying feats.

They often believe their own abilities have been given a "super-boost" by wearing the costume.

Although risk-taking is normal for children, doctors fear the advent of superhero role models can give them unrealistic expectations.

The doctors are right about one thing: Risk-taking is normal for children. And when kids don't have costumes, they'll improvise.

When I was a kid, the boys in the neighborhood dressed up as Superman by draping a bath towel around their shoulders and fastening it at their throats with a clothespin. Then they got up on the roof of one of the boys' garage and jumped off, hopefully into the iceplant. I can't remember if any of them broke any bones, but there were definitely some sprained ankles.

It's called, "growing up male."

One of my co-workers told the story (forgive me if I've told you this already) of his son and his son's friend who were playing with golf clubs in the front yard. The dad had warned them to be careful, so of course they got a little wild and the friend hit the son with a club and gashed his head. When the dad got the son into the emergency room, he said to his son, "Now, look around and tell me how many girls you see here." There weren't any.

The article continues:

A study describes the cases of five boys who injured themselves while dressed as Superman or Spider-Man.

In one case, a six-year-old boy suffered a head injury and a broken foot when he fell from a first floor window pretending to be Spider-Man. He needed a brain scan and X-rays.

Four other boys, aged between three and eight, hurt themselves while dressed as Spider-Man or Superman.

Three were injured when they attempted to fly "without having planned for landing strategies".

One of the four had a head wound while three suffered broken bones which needed treatment under general anaesthetic.

The report noted that one of the children would have sustained even worse injuries had his costume not been padded with imitation muscles.

I have all the sympathy in the world for the parents of these boys (note how many are girls), and even a little sympathy for the boys themselves. But the doctors doing the study and raising the alarm are a bunch of girlie-men who have obviously forgotten what it was to be a kid.

Let the kids dress up and pretend to be Super-Duper Man. But buy them the costumes with the fake muscles, just in case.