Raising Resilient Teens: How To Avoid Overprotecting Your Child By West Ridge Academy

Over-protectiveness or ‘Helicopter Parenting’ is a commonly misused description given to caring parents, according to West Ridge. Often as parents, it seems easier emotionally to protect your child from every situation that 'might' cause a scraped knee so they don't have to experience the temporary pain. But this is not always the healthiest thing for your child developmentally. This is the role of an attentive mother and father. But when it goes overboard, as far as not letting him explore the outside world, over-protectiveness emerges.

Defining Your Role

How will you know whether you are an overprotective parent or just a plain caring mom or dad? Most experts agree that the primary difference in parents who are over bearing and controlling and those that care and love their kids yet allow them to learn on their own is "trust". There are times when you can step back and trust your child is capable for the task and if not trust that the consequence for failure is reasonable, and there are times when you know that the consequences can be to great and you must intervene for their own safety's sake. For example you can trust your child to choose their sport or hobby interests, yet maybe not their choice of food.

Thus, a loving and caring guardian will allow their child to choose for themselves and not inject the will of someone else even your own. Rather an overprotecting parent who helicopters around their child is telling their child that they don't trust their ability to make decisions which turns them into adults that can't make decisions.

Avoiding Helicopter Parenting

There are many ways to correct Helicopter Parenting, or to prevent you from becoming one. West Ridges Academy primarily advises care givers to let children solve their own problems and learn from them. Something that you can do is encourage them to choose the activities they want to participate in or the hobbies, sports or subjects they want to pursue. Children need to solve problems and learn to take ownership of their decision at an early age in order to grow into healthy high functioning adults. Experts tell parents that its okay to let your children make mistakes because no one is perfect that this is a good way for them to know this and not have this expectation of themselves. Mistakes help your kids learn to overcome and learn to deal with failure, making them stronger. Be excited for them to experience all of life and explore their limits, and to make mistakes. Kids are hands on learners and need to learn from action.

Furthermore, never forget to chat with your child about what they learned from their experience. Talk with him about his hobbies, interests, problems and other things that concern him.

Always remember to ask him about his preferences in food, clothing, toys and other needs and wants. If you want good obedient teens one of the best ways is to allow them to choose for themselves.

Even younger children want to assert their independence and you can start teaching them how to make decisions early by giving little choices. West Ridge Academy suggests that in the case of toddlers going to school that is helpful to give them simple decisions yet being attentive to their age appropriate fears.

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