look around, look around

The boys tend to play in ways that are both wonderfully beneficial and inherently dangerous.
Sticks rank high on their list of favorite toys, for use as wands and bats and shovels and fishing poles. We uprooted the family and moved closer to the woods so the boys could engage in more of that kind of imaginative play. We try to be careful with our Be careful!s, to not let the warning mean “Put that stick down.” But sticks need lots of space.
At some point, in the middle of a concrete jungle, the boys managed to find a large stick. Tolliver used it first to reach a coin that was wedged way under the bean. And then Hank swung it around in ways that risked skewering a stranger's eyeball. Instead of making him put it down we reminded him to look around, to be sure the stick had enough space to be safe.