Have we, as a society, become so over-protective and so intent on micro-managing everything that we’re not even allowing kids to be kids anymore? Look at the facts. A number of schools have gotten rid of dodge ball and tag. Many schoolyards no longer have slides and seesaws for fear of someone getting hurt. Kids are discouraged from playing tackle football and hanging upside down the monkey bars. Some schools have even gone as far as banning flip-flops, to protect kids from twisted ankles!

P.E. classes and day camps today are meticulously structured and monitored and many gym teachers avoid games that may carry the risk of physical pain or scar a child emotionally. How many times is the phrase “there are no losers” being uttered during school games today? I hate to break it to the graduating class of 2020, but sadly, there are. A game, a sport, a challenge necessitates the existence of a winner and a loser. To pretend otherwise is a disservice to these poor kids, currently attending ceremonies for graduating... kindergarten. Wasn't there a time when we actually had to achieve something to earn a gold star?

Although not a parent, I can certainly understand the primal need to protect your offspring from life's disappointments. But there’s a big difference between protecting a child from danger and sheltering them completely from life. We’re treating kids like hot-house flowers and then wondering why we’re creating an entire generation of wimps.

In 2001, journalist Matt Labash, wrote a cover story for The Weekly Standard, discussing “the Wussification of America", and referring to how schoolchildren across North America are being prevented from playing these games, because they “foster violence, aggression, competitiveness and can inflict permanent damage to a kid’s fragile self-esteem”.

Listen, I remember, only too vividly, the sting of that rubbery missile hitting the side of my head on the dodge ball court, but "permanent damage to my self-esteem?" Come on, people!

Sure, it sucks to lose, and your ego might get a little bruised, but you don’t die from it. You learn to dodge the next ball that’s aimed at you. Isn’t trial and error what life is all about?

I’m not advocating someone throw solid objects at your kid’s head for fun, but really... it’s just a ball and it’s just a game! Should we expect that kids go out and pick up lawn bowling just because our need to protect them from all harm has overwhelmed our lives? Isn't removing all challenge and possibility of failure from their childhoods setting them up for a seriously rude awakening later on, in the real world? Sometimes you have to lose in order to win.