Are todays kids being over-protected?

I see a lot of extremes today; either parents are being over protective or not protective enough. There seems to be very few that can balance between the two. I see some who with kids won't let them out of their eyesight until they are in their late teens. They cannot do anything without a parent right there with them. Forget sleep overs, forget playing even in a fenced backyard, forget riding your bike anywhere but right in the driveway, and anything else that most kids will want to do as they get older. I think we need to realize the more we protect them, to try and keep them in a plastic buble the more likely they are to one, rebel against us, but also more likely to get in trouble or be hurt later in life because they have not learned the lessons they need. I have seen it happen. Then we have the ones who let their kids go out at six years old and run all over the neighborhood. I know for us we try to find a balance between the two. We talk with my neice and let her know the dangers, what to do and what not to do. We have to trust her and trust ourselves in teaching her what to do.

I have a friend with two kids. Every time I go visit her, all I would hear is she shouting the word "Don't" to her kids. As of these days, do we really need to protect our kids? I believe that we should but not to the point of being over-protected. We should let our children experience and learn from things on their own. However, I'm not saying that we should let our children on their own. What I mean is, on small things that can't hurt our children, we should allow them to experiment on that. It's okey if they bumped on something as long as they were not seriously hurt.

We cannot protect our kids enough nowadays this world has gone crazy with terrorristic threats and shootings and massacre, there is no way to protect a child nowadays too much, yes we have to let them grow and learn the meaning of support and caring for themselves, but we also have to let them know how to protect themselves from all the evil that has recently been overtaking our communities, I was sheltered as a child and today I know alot still..we have to protect our children that is our jobs...

Actually, I see the exact opposite problem. I teach at the high school level and the things that kids are being allowed to do by parents are down right scary. There is preparing them and then there is setting them up for disaster. You raise a good point, but I have to say that I strongly disagree. I look forward to this discussion.

I dont know what exactly you are talking about. But the world today really requires people to protect children more. It's a dangerous place full of stupid people, and kids need to be shielded from bad stuff.

I do not feel like I was/am overprotective....I think that I have always allowed my children to persue their wishes and dreams....I also think that it is our responsibility to protect our children and teach them about self-awareness. This can be a very violent and danger world...... It can be hard to balance safety with protecting them.....but I think that most parents really are doing their best....but you must be a realistist and teach, watch, warn, protect, support, and set an example for your children. I truly believe that this can be done without "suffocating them or their spoirits. Anyway, that is my opinion!

you are right, I was suffocated and I paid the price for it as well. I grew up and could not do anything. It was awful, but I learned. I tried to make my son more independent than I was though.

As an over protective mother I can say that now days most parents that I see are not very protective at all of their children. There are small kids running the street till all hours of the night and there is no parent around. Th other night I came home from a party and it was about 11:00 at night and there was this eight year old playing in the street. Where is his mother? There was a woman in the news about six months ago because her five year old son was kidnapped out of her front yard. Come to find out the woman lived on the second floor of an appartment complex and the child was in front of the appartment. She was in her appartment and the child was outside. She was not watching him at all. So it was very easy for a stranger to walk up and take the child. I am not saying this is right but if she was outside with her child this would not have happened. This is only one example of many that are in the news day after day. There are other parents who go to walmart or target to go shopping and just leave the kids in the toy department while they go shop. There are others that take their children to the grocery store and let the kids run and take stuff off shelves. They have no control what so ever and these are small kids what are they going to be like when they get older.

as a kid.my parents have let me have a free reign over my life.they hold me back wen necessary n let me be independent most of da time.but many parents do overprotect their kids.except mine of course.

Yo can protect your child but not become over protective, they need to learn everything by their own. Learning by doing is the best way to make them understand. Make them understand not make them scare to anything. Need process to be more mature.

I don't think they are being over protected. A lot of kids have a lot of freedom. and because of that, they turn out bad. restrictions need to be made here and there. but they should also get a certain degree of freedom.

Honestly, yes I think many are. Or they are being brought up in a very unreaslistic way, and when they go out into the 'real' world, without their cushions and cotton wool, they are going to come down with a very hard thump. I have been every open with my children. I don't think too much surprises them. I guard them like a wolf against anyone that might harm them, crossing streets against traffic, getting lost in a crowd, things like that. They KNOW about these dangers, though, and others besides, so the day that comes that I am not there to watch over them, they should be well able on their own. What will happen to the ones that aren't even aware of what they need to do or to be aware of? I don't really understand the nboion of 'shielding' them from every little thing.

I don't know if they are being over-protected or just spoiled. It probably depends on your frame of reference too. I work in a fairly middle class area with kids who range in economic status. What I see is that a lot of kids are handed everything and nothing is expected of them. The result is that they don't take responsibility for their actions and many don't expect to have to work hard to accomplish what they want. My own kids used to say I was over-protective because I tried to keep close tabs on them and keep them from being exposed to things too early. I always laugh at that because they had a lot of good experiences and turned out great.

This is such a good subject.How do we really know how much is too much? I am going through a dilemma about sending my son to school or teaching him at home.This is one of the reasons I struggle with this decision.I am really torn.I want to protect him, but I do want him to be a strong independant person.