24 Apr

Overprotection by parents shakes the confidence of the child.

Overprotective parents

Overprotective parents can hamper the growth of your child.

As parents, we always want our kids to be safe. The world outside scares us, and leaves our kids out there alone, is not easy. Yet, we should not be a victim of overprotection.
For example, if our child is in their early teens and wants to take an auto rickshaw to travel for a few kilometers, we get scared. More often, we tell our kid that only if there is someone to drop them off and pick them up, they can go. Now even though the child understands and complies, there is a little part of the child that feels less confident. The child feels lack of confidence in the parents and in turn feel weak themselves.

Symptoms of an over-protective parent-

  1. Your child doesn’t believe in himself.
  2. They have a lack of self-confidence as parents don’t allow them to travel alone.
  3. You chose their friends.
  4. You accompany them even for an outing with friends.
  5. Overprotective parents interfere with the training sections and guide the trainer all the time.
  6. You make choices on their behalf.
  7. Forcing them to do activities they don’t like.
  8. Children’s phone checking is frequent.
  9. The confidence of the child gets shaken when you stalk them online.

We as parents love our children a lot and therefore want only the best for them. We want to shield them from all possible tragedies that we foresee and protect them.
Let kids explore the world. Just have their back, take precautions to ensure that you are there in case things go wrong but for your children’s sake, please do not hover over them (like a helicopter) all the time. Don’t treat them like a weak oil lamp flame as they face wildly blowing winds. You need to be able to help your kids become confident, worldly wise and strong, come what may.

Children with overprotective parents need a lot of hand-holding. Moreover, they need endorsements endlessly.
This question always baffles businessmen, why in the west even when a person fails in 4 or 5 businesses, their confidence remains unshaken?
Well, these businessmen learn from each failure, think fresh and attempt yet another time.
On the other hand, in our country, afraid something might fail, we do not even give ourselves a chance. On the fear that we will fail, we withdraw from struggles, ambitions, and risks for the rest of our lives.

Could it be because of overprotective parents from childhood, ever wondered?

With the scary thought that something dangerous might happen, we as parents withdraw from opportunities and unfortunately, we pass on similar tendencies to our children.
Overprotective parents will create a complex in our children. Thus it can cripple your kids (potentially), hurt their self-esteem and stab their confidence. Avoid overprotection as much as you can, and give them the necessary exposure.
Let them get a little hurt, be there to put the bandage but don’t stop them from trying. This will help them build healthy confidence.
“Real protection means teaching children to manage risks on their own and not shielding them from every hazard.” Wendy Mogel
Next time you want to overprotect your child, assess the situation and then let them go on and live!

Parenting Coach/Expert @ WOW Parenting Naren is a dreamer and a people lover. An unshakable optimist, he strives towards building a better world where everyone has a beautiful story to tell. He strongly believes that incredible parenting can change every human being’s life journey to something phenomenal. And that is his “Why” for building Wow Parenting.

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