Is Overprotecting Your Child Enough?

Is overprotecting your child more than enough to keep them in line?

We all can remember ourselves or have had a friend who had over the hill protective parents. Hell, some of us have had parents cut just from that same cloth ourselves. As society rapidly grows the need for parental involvement increases.
Is it necessary to smother our children in order to keep them right where we want them? Perhaps it isn't necessary. As often as parents complain how difficult it is to raise children, they forget how difficult it was to be a child.

Now each parent has his or her own definition of overprotective. Sometimes it means making sure they don't date until after college. Sometimes it means making sure they don't hang out late at night. Sometimes it means they can't pick a university, instrument or activity they choose to do. Sometimes it's doing the right thing,
sometimes it's being mean.

"Yeah I smother my kid," one stubborn neighbor responded when asked if he thought he was overprotective. "I kick my kid ass cos they got to learn. They need to know that the world ain't no place to play."

Unfortunately, some parents today use overprotection as a way to instill fear in their child. For other parents, it is a crutch used in terms of a lack of their parental responsibility. Put aside those crummy careers and take time to talk and develop a better relationship with your child. If children are smothered since conception, many of them grow up not knowing who they are or the world they live in.

In addition some children grow up and begin disregarding authority after being caged in for 18+ years. Other children may grow up fully dependent on their parents and not have any self-control over their life. Is it not coincidental that many caged in children tend to choose further away universities to simply "get away?" The word exploration comes into mind, but if these children have opportunities to observe the world around them perhaps they'll come around and can be more responsible.

However, there's still some sort of protectiveness that needs to come into the light. A parent's job is to protect and they must be keen as to what is occurring in their child's life. Getting to know your child's friends, hobbies and interest can be a good
way to begin. But don't expect to know every little detail. Allow some kind of privacy for them to form a social circle amongst their environment.

A better relationship can work out for everybody. The greater the relationship, the better the probability that a child feel will safe to reveal themselves. Added pressure just adds stress to the equation; forcing kids to create a shell full of miscommunication and guard walls. Indeed, some become involve in unfulfilling relationships with people they don't feel they can open up to.

Your child is your creation, your love and your work. Please go and hug your child now!