It is understandable when parents are concerned about their children, as that can only mean they love their children. But as the saying goes, too much of anything is not good. The same goes for the love or protection that you give your children. We’re talking about overprotective parents and how it is not a good thing to be too protective of children. Here are some signs that show you’re an overprotective parent.
1. Micromanaging Everything
Are you keeping your child a little too close? It is bad to take control of every single thing for your child. Micromanagement can cause your child to stop in their tracks and prevent them from finding the true interests that they personally want to pursue. The correct way is for parents to stop and ask their child what is it that they want and let them make some choices for themselves.
2. Keeping Your Child From Failing
People need to fail in order to learn from their mistakes. If parents are always keeping their children from failing, how will they ever learn things the hard way then? If a parent does this, the child won’t be able to handle failure later in their life. When your child fails at something, let them cope with their feelings and overcome it by themselves.
3. Not Teaching Responsibility
Doing every chore for your child would be equivalent to not teaching them any responsibilities. It may seem easier for you to just get things done quickly but your child needs to learn about responsibilities. Don’t make their bed, clean their room or put their clothes away for them. Never assume they’ll naturally know how to do these things once they’re grown up, it all comes from practice.
4. Overly-Consoling Your Child
It can break your heart to witness your child cry and get upset over a “booboo” or when another child bullies them. Don’t go out of your way to console them, sure, you want to fix all those hurt and make them feel better but don’t overdo it by spoiling them. If you do so, they’ll never learn to cope with hardships on their own. But that doesn’t mean you don’t do anything at all, give them warm hugs and kisses, assure them it will be fine and then move on.
5. Controlling Who They Befriend
It would be great if you could pick who your child is friends with, wouldn’t it? But how would we like it if our parents picked who we had to be friends with? Would that be nice? No, didn’t think so. There may be some kids you wish your child would be best friends with but friendships cannot be forced. You shouldn’t interfere with who your child is friends with unless they are being negatively influenced.
6. Constantly Warning Them About Danger
It should be a top priority to keep your child safe but overdoing it is always a big no-no. If you’re constantly scaring them by telling them that every single thing they’re about to do is dangerous, they’ll never have the courage to do anything before consulting you. How is your child going to adapt to the real world if anything less than ideal to you is prohibited?
7. Stopping Your Child From Branching Out
You may think that you know what’s best for your child and make the decision for them to pursue it without asking them what they really want. Let’s say your child wants to learn Arts but you think that Science is a much better choice. Sometimes you unintentionally block your kids from branching out on their own, they’ll never discover their real talent and interest this way.
8. Checking On Them Non-Stop
Calling your child’s teacher frequently to ask how they’re doing in class, calling your child every hour when they’re out with friends to ensure they’re safe. It can be reassuring for you but it can be very suffocating for your child or the others around him. Just balance the number of check-ins to avoid making yourself and the people around you to go crazy.
9. Putting Your Child In A Bubble Away From The Real World
Life isn’t all about sunshine and rainbows and children need to know that as they grow. You can protect them as much as you want now but you can’t do that forever. They are bound to grow up and they will be exposed to the world someday without you by their side. Because of that, it’s always better for you to prepare them before they go out there by themselves.
It’s normal for parents to want to keep their children safe but sometimes you’ll have to let go little by little for them to learn and adapt to the real world.
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