Have you ever noticed that the term overprotective mother/parents is usually a term used by others? How many times have you heard a mom say "Yeah, I know that I am overprotective". Not many. The term is used by others to describe a parent that takes protective measures that they personally don't take. My theory is because the protective measure doesn't carry enough risk for the mom to care or the protective measure is too inconvenient for the mom to follow through on. But is there really a such thing as "overprotective" when it comes to the protection of your children? I don't things moms would do the things that they do if they did not feel like there was some legitimate risk involved. Or even if the risk was small...your child is probably not going to get kidnapped while playing in the front yard..would you ever forgive yourself if it was your child that was the one in a million who got kidnapped by playing in the front yard?
Chris and I were recently discussing which friends and family members we trusted our kids with. This is easy to observe by observing how they treat their own children. If 15 minutes go by and you don't know where your child is, I am going to have a hard time leaving my children with you because I wouldn't trust that you would know where my child is. Chances are he would just be playing in a room or drawing all over your sofa but what if he wasn't..what if he was running in the street? So I have some fellow mom friends that would call me "overprotective" but to the mom that would call me overprotective, I would argue that they are not protective enough. There just isn't any substitution for adult supervision. And parents need to know which adults can be trusted to do this supervising as well. All adults are not created equal.
So here is my advice that you didn't ask for. If you are offended, so be it. If you disagree with me on something, I would love to hear why. Maybe I am overprotective in some ways but I really want to make it through my childrens' childhood without a tragic accident. Make your kids wear a life jacket, a seat belt and a helmet (preferably correctly). I want to know where my kids are and don't like much time to lapse before checking in on them. Booster seats are recommended until a height of 4'9. Children under 12 should ride in the back seat. Keep the doors to your house locked if you have small children. Know where they are when you are backing up your car. Don't assume that the other parent is watching a particular child while you walk out of the room. Don't assume that your 4 year old is not going to feed M&Ms to your baby even though he knows he is not supposed to. Lock up the drugs and the chemicals. Don't walk away from the bath tub. Don't walk away from the changing table. Don't assume that your 2 month old won't roll off the bed. Don't sleep your baby on its stomach until they are able to roll over on their own. I personally don't care if your baby sleeps better on their stomach..They have the "back to sleep" campaign for a reason. I am guessing that one is the most controversial on my list. But based on my experience at Hilton Head this past week, I am also surprised at how many kids don't wear helmets while riding their bike. Not a SC law so the parents didn't make them..guess safety didn't matter much. What are things that you do to protect your children?
I am not trying to be on a high horse here. I am certainly not faultless and there are certainly times when my kids are unsafe because I am distracted. And we won't even talk about the things that Peter has eaten because I wasn't paying enough attention. And this blog post doesn't really have much a point really. But being a mom of small children can be hard. So if nothing else, I would encourage you to evaluate your life style. Evaluate your children's care takers. And make decisions for yourself. Only YOU can fully protect your children. Are you doing everything that you could be doing to making sure that your child is in the safest environment possible? If it is not safe, do you remove the child from the situation even though it may be inconvenient for you or a confrontational moment with a good friend or family member?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Oh good. I wanted to re-read my post to make sure that I did mention that I wasn't faultless. Sometimes I can sound really arrogant when I go off on something. And by the way, if you don't already have it posted on your fridge, the number for poison control is 1-800-222-1222. I *hear* from other people, of course, that they are really nice when you call. Not that *I*, mother of the year who always watches her child, would know anything about such things. :)
Post a Comment