I and my wife have a lot of points where we are in permanent disagreement. the most important being Cleanliness She is a Cleanliness freak & I am more laid back.  but I am thankfull that both of us have similar thoughts on bringing up kids. In some countries it would be criminal but we know that its a good way.

we never closetted our child and always allowed him a lot of freedom he was lucky to be born in Assam where we were in the tea plantations and he spent his first 2.5 years there. We kept a lot of animals in the bungalow. There was a dog who is still with us, there were cows & calf's, Hens, Guinea Fowl and Pigeons, he used to love playing with all the animals and had no reason to be afraid of any animal. We found that even at that small an age we just had to tell him to be carefull and he would be so careful while say feeding the cows or throwing grain to the birds. I think that it is because of this independance that he started walking at the age of 10 months where as other children older than him were still crawling. YES we were carefull and ensured that there would be no situation where he would be harmed.

A lot of people dont like close contact with animals specially for their kids, (there are so many germs, diseases etc. etc.) I have seen my son in Pink of health while we were living so close to nature without even a fever in these 2 years. as soon as we moved to a city with close contact with other Human beings, School, etc he has had all kinds of diseases, Chest infections & stomach problems are now common.

His best friend is still our dog Sabri who has patience that has not been seen in any Human. we find that our son has a more rounded personality because of his animal companions. He will share anything very willingly, he is kinder, helpfull and Independent.

I am very happy taht we had this opportunity.