My philosophy is that it's not my job to protect him from harm. It's my job to protect him from irreparable harm. The point being that he has to learn how to cope with being hurt and getting hurt is the only way to learn where the line is.
He loves the outdoors. He will literally yell and cry at us to take him out for walks and/or to the park. Loves when I take him on the playground.
When we climb up, he loves to crawl through the tunnel and finds it hilarious when I chase him to stop him from getting away from me. He will definitely try to go down the slide by himself, or crawl out of the playground to a 5 foot drop. It's as if he has no concept of the dangers.
Meanwhile, I generally let him do what he wants elsewhere, like climbing stairs, crawling into cupboards, etc. He picked up a pretty gnarly bruise on his chin when we went swimming and he fell in the change room.
To his credit, nothing seems to deter him. He'll cry for maybe 30 seconds, often less, take a quick hug from me, and then jump right back to whatever he was doing.
I can't wait until he's actually walking because then I can expose him to some riskier stuff, which he'll enjoy. Winter's almost here, so I expect him to be walking when we start enjoying the playground more often again.
If you have snow, get him a snow sled for toddlers. Stiga makes a really nice one called the Baby Cruiser. It has a large back rest, cushion and a seat belt. And the design makes sure the speed remains low enough, unless you take it out on icy conditions (which you shouldn't).
As a bonus, in spring you can put it on top of a skateboard, run the seat belt around both the sled and skateboard, and presto you can "sled" in summer. My kids used to love that.
https://www.clasohlson.com/uk/Stiga-Cruiser-Baby-Sledge/p/Pr...
Sledges are awesome though, and also highly recommended. I take him to daycare on one when the ice/snow is suitable for it. If only the city wouldn't grit the pavements it'd be easier!
I do plan on taking him out all the time in the winter, but we're limited by:
1) Reduced daylight hours
2) My wife is primary caregiver (on leave) and does a fantastic job of taking him outside, and she will continue during the winter, but it will be more difficult for her than for me.
Nevertheless, he's going to love this winter!
If you're up north, maybe you also do cross-country skiing (or snow shoes). If so, you could consider getting a pulka like the Fjellpulken Children. It's awesome, but a bit expensive, and maybe hard to find over there. They work well up to the age of 4-5, then they want to ski by themselves.
https://en.aventurenordique.com/children-pulk-fjellpulken.ht...
Once he tried to start climbing the changing table at home, we decided to try to get him to practice climbing on things. He now climbs the table by himself most of the time. This accomplishes two things - he loses interest in climbing it, and if he tries it when our backs are turned he will have the skills to make it up without hurting himself.
Sometimes we make errors and increase the risk of harm when trying to decrease it; errors should be corrected but it is otherwise trade-offs and uncertainty.
As a parent I would of course keep my kids away from something I thought would cause a head injury or was seriously dangerous, but minor injury risk (even up to broken bones) is just something all humans live with. Otherwise there’s no sports, no running, no exercise at all.... and that’s even worse for your health.
Most kids don't go to playground after school, because nowdays parents are expected to go with them and parents don't like that or wants to cook. Playgrounds are super boring for parents. When kids are big enough to go alone, they don't know what to do there.
Kids over 8 mostly want to either play elaborate stories or talk.
"Naturally" there are no playgrounds, gardens at best and risk there is from tools. When I take kids to forest, there are only rarely dangerous situations. Most trees are impossible to climb at, exceptions are the ones with fruits in the gardens. The ground is soft.
The kind of injuries that happened in old playgrounds like stucking head somewhere or strangling on rope or hand stuck in seesaw don't happen.
Of course I don't like him being injured, but at the same time it is going to happen and I'd rather he learn as soon as he can.
I'm very very attentive when we're in a swimming pool, but otherwise I hang-back when we're in the park unless he says "Daddy help".