Are we too protective of our children?

Are we too protective of our children?

A cranky opinion for

CRANKY OPINION SATURDAY

The following is the opinion of a cranky old man with little knowledge on the subject opined.  Opposing opinions are welcome, but will be ignored, and as always, please no name calling and that means you, you big stupid head!

I have read a theory (I think it is just a theory) that the reason many children are allergic to peanut butter, an absolute staple when my children were growing up, is parents do not subject their children to peanut butter when they are very young.  If this is true, it means that because one child suffered from what was once a very rare allergy, parents would not give their children peanut butter and as a result they did not develop resistance and also became allergic to peanut butter.

The act of protecting children makes them dangerously susceptible to what was once a common safe nutritious product.

Years ago, children walked to school even at an early age.  I walked several blocks to kindergarten.  My children walked a half mile to kindergarten and grade school.  These days I notice there is a parent or guardian accompanying every child.  There was and still is a crossing guard at every street, but do the children learn any independence?  Do they develop that all important self-esteem when do they grow up?  I live in a town house community that is shut off from any other development.  When the school bus lets the children off, the parents are waiting, often in cars to drive them less than a block and a half home.

I hear parents are worried about child abduction.  What message does that send to the child?  Teach them to beware of strangers, but don’t teach them to be afraid of ever being independent.

Keep them safe from peanut butter and you give them a dangerous allergy.  Keep them safe from strangers, and you instill in them fear for the rest of their lives. 

Hell, children today don’t even know how to cross a street.  Children all used to learn by the age of four to stop, look both ways and then hurry across a street.  Children today, even teenagers casually stroll across the street without even glancing left and right.  They cross as if it is the vehicles responsibility to not hit them.  Well it is, but drivers text, drivers drink, drivers are not always attentive, drivers make mistakes, and when they do children who have not been taught to cross a street get killed.

Children today sometimes do not even walk.  I see children in strollers with their feet hitting the ground and their knees in their face because they are too big, and yet they do not walk.  If child obesity is a big problem today, part of the cause is children do not walk.  They are driven everywhere and they are pushed in strollers all over the mall.  Children walking while you shop or travel can be an inconvenience, heck, children in general are an inconvenience.  Let them walk!

I know it is a different world than in years past.  In many ways it is more dangerous, but sometimes over protection is just as dangerous.  Over protection can stunt a child’s development, it may send young adults out into the real world unprepared for stress and hardship. 

Over protection, over cautiousness, in the long term may develop nervous, food allergic, overweight children who don’t know how to cross a street. 

The preceding was the opinion of a cranky old man and not necessarily that of management...Mrs. Cranky.