I came across this article today on time.com, it's titled The Backlash of Overprotective Parents.
**I have no kids...only a dog.
The article really hit home for me because growing up I played outside, rode my bike (with a helmet, of course) to friends' houses a couple of blocks away and was generally adventurous... all with encouragement from my parents; I was NOT a hothouse, mama-tied, danger-hallucinating joy extinguisher. This article (click on link to go read it!!) talks about the poor kiddos who are constantly overprotected to the point where they are afraid of everything and have only a minimal (if any) sense of adventure and independence.
Some of the parents in the article think they are protecting their children by being overly cautious with them, but in my mind, and the article points this out as well, you might be protecting them in the short term, but in the long term are you really just damaging them further?
I know parents who let their kiddos roam, try new things, eat worms, etc. AND I know parents who don't let their kids play on playgrounds or drink from the drinking fountain at the public library...to each their own. Some methods that would work well for one set of parents might not work well for other parents. Live and let live I guess, you really can't control how people raise their little ones. For now, I will just focus on raising Britta and keep getting excited for my little niece who I'm due to meet in about a month, exactly!!
Who's to say what kind of parent I'll be, I'm a pretty protective doggy mama! Perhaps I will attempt to follow the advice of D.H. Lawrence
"How to begin to educate a child. First rule: leave him alone. Second rule: leave him alone. Third rule: leave him alone. That is the whole beginning."
This is a great article! Working in college admissions, I deal with these parents and kids everyday. It gets very frustrating because the kids can't act on their own while their parents make every decision for them. It's really sad when I see parents ruin amazing opportunities for their students based off what they think is right, not what is truly best for their kid. Generation X, aka the Millenials, has also been called the 'Boomerang Generation' because the kids often return to their parent's houses/authority later in life. So these are the people we have to trust to run our government, schools, financial system, etc in another 30 years? What are they going to do when Mommy and Daddy are no longer around?
ReplyDeleteI agree that you can't control how parents raise their kids, but I think this new "leave them alone" method of parenting is a great alternative!
Leave them alone!! Thanks for commenting...somebody IS reading my blog ;)
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