Is Your Overprotectiveness Hurting Your Child?

It’s 9:00am. Do you know where your children are?

Well . . . if you have any doubt your kids are in school, there’s a new device that’ll save your day.

According to an InformationWeek article, school children in the UK are being tracked by Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chips sewn into their school uniform. Kids can be tracked for attendance as well as truancy problems.

Security expert Bruce Schneier adds his two cents, “So now it’s [easier] to cut class; just ask someone to carry your shirt around the building while you’re elsewhere.”

Here’s more safety news. New Jersey’s Montclair State University requires students to carry a GPS-Based Cell device to keep track of their whereabouts.

Regarding the safety of our kids, we do have good reason for concern. The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention reports, “A child goes missing every 40 seconds in the U.S, over 2,100 per day. In excess of 800,000 children are reported missing each year, and another 500,000 go missing without ever being reported…”

Despite the necessity of these safety precautions, the pendulum can swing in the other direction of parental overprotection. In a Focus on Your Child article Dr. James Dobson describes overprotective parents as those who are “watching, guarding, defending and shielding him [the child] day and night . . .”

How can you tell if you’re an overprotective parent?

•You are committed to sparing your child from any pain. The desire to keep your child from pain also keeps them from necessary maturity that comes from making important moral decisions.

By embedding a tracking device in Johnny’s clothing, the decision whether to ditch school or not is already made for him.

Paul Coughlin, author of No More Christian Nice Guy, questions whether our tendency to overprotect our kids is eradicating such rugged virtues as wisdom, shrewdness, boldness and courage.

•You appear to lack concern about equipping your child for life. Do you think an environment of comfort will equip your son to be adept at handling money, be loyal to one woman in his married life, support the needs of his family and obey the laws of the land?

If your child is not given responsibilities, taught the meaning of work, and allowed to cross the street on his own, he’s headed for trouble.

A young woman working at Starbucks told me how she was on a date and her date’s car had a flat tire. She, wearing a dress, ended up changing the flat since her date had no mechanical aptitude. I asked, “Would you go out with him again?” Without thinking, she said, “Not unless he learns how to get his hands dirty and change a tire.”

Dads, are you teaching your sons to get their hands dirty and become a man that a woman can rely upon in time of need?

•You take your child’s position whether he is right or wrong. The child is made to feel he is perfect and experiences little or no discipline. As long as you consistently take the side of your child, you prevent him from resolving conflicts with his peers and teachers.

In a Focus on Your Child article, parenting expert Dr. James Dobson concludes, “Our final task in building self-esteem for our children comes as we transfer responsibility from our shoulders to theirs . . . Letting go is not an easy task, but good parenthood demands it.”

Letting go,

John

John’s Blog
Email: johnsblog@teshmedia.com

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