Editorial: Being a cool dad in a wary world

A moment of celebration for Mike Allsop and daughter Maya as she breaks the record for the world's highest stand-up paddleboard. Photo / Supplied

EDITORIAL

There's little doubt there'd be a few who disagree with Mike Allsop's approach to parenting. Encouraging your child to choose their wildest imaginable adventure and making it a reality would sound counterintuitive to many.

"I know there are probably people out there who reckon letting a 12-year-old girl go paddleboarding on a freezing lake in the Himalaya is a stupid thing to do, and I was well aware of the criticism I would get if anything went wrong," Allsop told the Weekend Herald in today's story.

Too right they would. But Allsop went ahead anyway.

"There will always be critics," he says, "but if we all focused on what the naysayers might think then no one would ever do anything."

Antifragile is a word coined by Black Swan author Nassim Nicholas Taleb to describe the need for some good, hard knocks in order for a person to develop to their potential. Taleb contends that just as human bones get stronger when subjected to stress and tension, many things in life benefit from pressure, disorder, volatility or turmoil.

While taking all possible precautions to prevent harm, it would appear Mike Allsop is presenting his children with some of the greatest opportunities to be the best they can be.

All lives are lived in risk, even those wrapped in cotton wool. But those who believe cotton wool is best used for bathing wounds after falling out of a tree deserve our admiration, not admonition.