Ben Fogle’s wife has spoken out about how she chooses not to wrap up her kids in cotton wool so she can help them overcome fear.
Marina Fogle, who is mum to Ludo, seven, and Iona, six, with the TV presenter, said she once set up a fake “accident” for her daughter when she was younger, to teach her about the dangers of going down the stairs.
The mum set up a soft landing using dog beds at the bottom of four steps. As her daughter crawled towards the stairs, she fell onto the cushioned landing.
“I was obviously there to catch her and make sure she didn’t hurt herself, but the shock frightened her,” The mum wrote in the Mail on Sunday on 23 July.
The mum added: “She cried for a bit but it was the last time she tried to go headfirst down the stairs.”
Ben Fogle has previously opened up about allowing his two kids to have knives.
“My five- and seven-year-old have got knives, whittling knives, they’ve got a sharp blade... to whittle wood,” he told the Press Association, according to The Telegraph in May 2017.
“They’ve had those for years now. We make fire. They do everything. We treat them like grown-ups.
“Children should take risks - my son loves playing with snakes - it’s definitely something we encourage.”