Non-competitive divisions - to foul or not to foul

Currently in our Region, the non-competitive divisions don't allow "fouls."
We look at refereeing as a teaching moment, and restart with a dropped ball.
If the behaviour continues too much, we may indeed allow a free kick - but always indirect.

Now, the question is:  Should we continue this at all non-competitive levels (U5-U8)?  After U8 comes U10, where the kids now are expected to follow all the FIFA rules (except for field size, # of players, etc).  Fouls and misconduct exists, as to direct and indirect kicks.  Are we doing our players a disservice by dumping them into this situation after "playing nice" for so long?

Life goes on.

Well, it has been a long time since I posted anything. In the off season, so very long ago now, my oldest son died. Since then, it has been somewhat of a struggle to even carry on, let alone enter things into a blog. But.. life goes on. I have a daughter who is going into U14 this year, and another son who is excited about U7 - and I've coached him for the last two seasons.

Yes, life goes on. I became an Advanced Referee, started teaching referee classes, was the Assistant Regional Commissioner, and now I am the Director of Instruction. How did this happen when I wasn't even looking? When I just want to crawl under a rock until the sun happened to start shining again? Life goes on...sometimes kicking and screaming, we have to do our best. And in doing our best, sometimes the best takes over without us even knowing why.

A moment of silence, then life, indeed, will go on.