*Completely* agree with most of the concerns of overparenting & the importance of allowing children to fail.

However, the red washcloth to hide blood loss has some practical merits, to include shortening the length nosebleeds. Kids have a natural tendency to remove the cloth (& thus the pressure) to see/check the blood/blood loss. If there is nothing to see, they are more likely to keep the rag in place, thereby maintaining pressure and (usually) decreasing length of the nose bleed. I'm not sure of the origin, but we often use it for peds patients admitted for epistaxis (fancy medical term for nosebleeds).

I really dislike Valentine's day & we don't celebrate it (too forced, too silly, too much expectation, too pink, flowery, etc). This, however, is awesome! I broke the rules and now there is a cockroach at the Bronx Zoo named for my sweet husband :-) Thanks for the link!