As a parent it is pretty obvious to be protective towards your children. Be it at home or outside, we tend to monitor every move of our child. I often see parents driving their kids to school avoiding the school bus and seeing them off right at the door of their class. It is natural to be concerned and worried about your child but you need to draw a line between being concerned and being over protective for your child. Because as much as your concern, worry and guidance benefits the kid; being overprotective does more harm which as a parent you would consciously never realize. Here are few reasons why you should avoid being an overprotective parent.
Inhibition in Learning:
Children learn in various ways. They either learn through visuals or learn it through experience. As an overprotective parent, one usually tends to hand hold the child in every step of their life. Even at the regular day to day life activities. This act inhibits the learning process of a child. When a child is at play, they learn through visuals and by touching various objects. If they fail at a game, they do not realize it as a failure and tend to try again. In the process they learn various skills like problem solving and resilience. As a concerned parent you can guide your child and help him adapt certain skills but avoid handholding at every step and shadowing your kid in every move they make.
Hinders Self Confidence:
The more you let your child learn and correct his ways to do a certain tasks while you subtly guide them, the more they will develop self confidence to perform any task on their own. Being overprotective only gets them a feeling that their efforts are futile and you have no faith in their performance.
Builds Negativity:
When parents try to be overprotective and tend to put everything in order to ease every task for their child, it hampers their development more than doing any good. It is good to be cautious about your kid, monitor their activities but at a certain level you need to let your child explore and learn things on their own. Research and studies have shown that children with overprotective parents tend to behave differently from other kids and suffer from anxiety disorders.
Kids Fail to Identify their Limitations:
Unlike adults, kids do not tend to give up. It is very important for parents to foster that skill of resilience by encouraging them to try till they succeed any task. Overprotective parents do not let their kids learn from their mistakes since they are always looking out for ways to help their kids accomplish a certain task. Naturally kids fail to identify their potential and limitations. In cases like this children fail to develop skills to handle stress and difficult situation. It gets very obvious for them to resort to their parents for assistance and help whenever they face a roadblock.
Overprotective parents or called helicopter parents have significant negative impact in the development of their kids. Instances like physical exertion, bruises, an altercation at the playground, hygiene obsession or even a minor accident like falling from a swing should be blown out of proportion and the kid should be allowed to learn from his mistakes. Research has shown that certain germs actually help in boosting the immunity of the child. Or falling from a swing helps the child learn more than what you could have taught her theoretically. So if you are one of those helicopter parents, it’s time that you stop being one and let your kid learn through experience and live their childhood.
