Kids in the Danger Zone
What sort of parent would take their three-year-old boy abseiling down a dizzyingly-high sheer rock face or allow their young children to climb down one of the deadliest mountains in the world? Well, it turns out a growing number of parents around the world are doing just that – leading their children headlong into the face of danger. It’s all in the name of extreme parenting – mums and dads who are ruling anything online out of bounds and declaring the only way to raise well-balanced children is outside in the real world on a white-knuckle adventure. It’s a high-risk world that many other parents will find way too perilous. But extreme parents are claiming success against a raft of behavioural issues. It’s all about the bruises, the bumps, the bleeding knees – but the critics of extreme parenting, including some paediatricians and child psychologists, say exposing your child to such danger is not worth the risk, and dispute the evidence that the activities foster a better kid. Sunday Night’s PJ Madam meets the parents taking their kids deep into the danger zone.
Healing Hana
Hana Tarrif is a desperately sick little girl running out of time and answers. In a cruel twist, a childhood operation to save her life solved one health emergency, but unleashed a medical drama that may kill her. So she’s been through more in her seven young years than most of us will go through in a lifetime. Twice she’s had to leave her home in Sydney to travel overseas for controversial medical procedures that her parents hope will help save her. Hana’s medical nightmare began in 2014. After undergoing surgery to remove a tumour on her brain, she was left with a rare side effect – she was unable to stop eating. Within 18 months Hana’s weight had tripled. Unable to find help in Australia, her parents took her to Egypt for an operation to try and get her weight down, and then Canada for experimental laser surgery. Now, her parents are o
