Is it right to be over-protective of our kids?

By Julie Hodgson

In today’s cosseted world of rules and regulations our children are being stifled by constant attempts to make our children’s lives safer. But the reality is that they are having their childhoods choked by over protective laws. We are told that it is “all for the good of the child”, but is it really?

If you remember when you were younger yourself, going to scouts, playing in dens that you had made with your friends from blankets and old bits of wood, and climbing trees to hide from the man whom you just “borrowed” a few apples from his tree, while he looks for you with increasing frustration, shaking his fist ready to give you an ear full! Fun wasn’t it?

Do today’s children experience the same? Do they feel that freedom that we had when we could go out after breakfast and return home late in the afternoon with scraped knees, muddy faces, and big smiles on our faces? To wander with your mates, play football on the grass in peace, without a “NO BALL GAMES” sign in sight. Such simple things they were, but this I fear has come to an end.  It has been sneaking up on us for years. It has crept in so inaudibly that we have not even noticed. 

Most children today sit in a virtual reality world on a PC instead of experiencing reality itself; they would have no idea how to react in ordinary life situations.  Playing “outside” is a strange thing and playing games as we did is fading fast. I can well imagine that in a few years scouts, guides and other social activities for our children will be banned as the “powers that be” would make it so difficult to attain the safety certificates we all seem to need for everything these days. Granted I agree that we should protect our children, but alas I fear in the process of putting our minds at ease, we are not seeing the damage that has been done, or will be done in the future, we will have a “lost generation” of children unable to cope because they have never learnt real life survival techniques.

And the paranoia continues to build. Now you are often banned from taking photographs in public of your child’s first playgroups or swim. Even for their first performance in the school play that they worked so hard on. Dad sits there smiling, watching his son or daughter, on stage but he cannot film this himself as it is not allowed.  How sad!

Where will it end I wonder? With children discouraged from going outside at all? With no interaction, then there’s no danger is there?  One thing we need to do is WAKE UP! Take note very fast indeed, or we will have a generation of children who cannot cope because they have not had the opportunity to learn freedom and responsibility. It is up to us. We are after all the parents!

Julie Hodgson is the author of ZodoFF, available at all good bookshops, including Amazon.