<human>: This weekend I took my family to see our extended family for the holiday.  My wife and I have 2 boys that are 2.5 and 4.5 years old. 

We were all outside in the front yard throwing a couple of footballs around, and some other kids were playing tag and what not.  My 4.5 year old finds a cool stick and for whatever reason he started running around with it.  I'm playing catch with some of the other children and another parent keeps telling my 4.5 year old to "Stop running with that stick, you are going to hurt yourself/someone else. You don't run with sticks."

I did not intervene because my son stopped after he was asked a few times.  However, I would never have batted an eye at my son running with a stick.  I mean he's at that age when sticks are FUN.  I don't see any harm with him running/playing with a stick unless he is hitting someone with it or throwing it at things, obviously.

It then occured to me that this parents kids are probably the most boring kids I have ever met. In fact, they are more mature than some adults I know.  I was reminded of the "Red Ryder bee bee gun, and you'll shoot your eye out, kid" from A Christmas Story.

So Reddit, where does one draw the line? I mean as far as I'm concerned, preventing my kids from having some kind freak accident would deprive them of a lot of fun.  Running with a stick?  I mean they could fall out of a chair while eating and poke their eye out with a fork too.

Can you give me a shortened version of the text?
<bot>: A parent told my kid he shouldn't run around with a stick in his hand because it was too dangerous.  Is this a little ridiculous? Or is it me? What other ridiculous parenting situations have you run into?