as a child how were you protected and nurtured?

Answer 1

As a child, NO, I was not protected and nurtured....and it has affected my entire adulthood. As a result, I trust NO ONE!

Answer 2

I'd say nurtured when I was small and over-protected by the time I've grown up.

Answer 3

This is an interesting question for a couple of reasons...1) families are structured differently, spread out, and stressed in ways than the family I was in growing up. 2) Our society has changed so much since I was a child that I'm wondering now whether the 'playing fields' are the same.

I was reflecting on this very topic just last week with my daughter's physician, since I find myself acting out the ways in which my Mom and Dad raised me. This may be long...but worthwhile. My mom is a professional musician, as well as a private music teacher, and was the organist in the church we attended. She practiced the piano every day...sometimes for 5 hours a day. And she was out twice a week for choir practice, and if there were weddings/funerals she did those, too.
Sshhh she said...you have to be quiet, I'm practicing....ssshhh...be quiet, I can't think when you're talking...Ssshhh she said, I'm practicing. I didn't want to make any noise, so I was real quiet.

These were the 50's - 60's. We lived on a dead-end street in a very rural town in western Massachusetts. My sister and brothers and I did not have playDates, as such. When we played kick-the-can, or red-rover, or hide-n-go-seek, or capture-the-flag, we played with 30 kids. I am not making this up. Within a three block area, there were that many kids to play with...we did not get along all the time. We got in fights, we called each other names, and ocassionally were bullied or bullied others. We were kids. If we were bleeding we went to the nearest house and said I need a band-aid...we probably got a kiss, too. Nobody called a lawyer.

In the back of our 6 room ranch house, my Mom and Dad had a huge vegetable garden, we raised corn, beans, all kinds of squash, cucumbers, raspberries and in the fall, pumpkins.
In the fall, my Dad and I would turn the soil over, pull out all the dead plants, rake out the garden, pile up the stones (we harvested stones in the spring), and for several years I can remember him putting up 3 foot high boards all around this garden (20 x 16), and he flooded the area. He ran lights out the back, and all the kids skated for hours, it seemed at the time.

We didn't have a TV until 1967. We listened to the radio, or my mom playing the piano. I took paino lessons until I was convinced my mom was out to get me, so I quit playing in 1968. My sister played, so did my younger brothers.
We didn't have homework in school until Jr. High, so we read books, alot of books. I could write my name when I was 4, and that was all I needed to get my library card. I read everything. That was all there was to do.

My parents put the front pages of the daily and Sunday newspapers on the walls of the dining room. We had this huge wall covered with newspapers and a world map. I thought for sure that other families thought our family was the weirdest, silliest, corniest family around, maybe in the whole wide world.
We learned where Little Rock, Arkansas was, and why that was an important place, we learned where Medger Evers went to school, and why some people didn't want him to succeed. We learned that there were ideas being tossed around like Molotov cocktails; and that to stand up for something that you really believed in deep down in your heart of hearts was darn important, and well, it might be worth dying for. Four white kids believed it. My Mom said Freedom isn't Free.

We'd get together with my parent's friends and go have a picnic at one of the coolest places in town...Bear's Den...ssshh, you might wake the bear. We had BBQ's in the backyard on star-lit nights, and my parent's called us in to take a bath way too early. There was no TV, and we didn't ask if could stay up later, 'cause we were asleep before our heads hit the pillows.

We went sledding down these huge hills, and built snow caves, and had snow-ball fights until our arms were tired, our noses running, and our cheeks bright red. Mom had cookies and hot cocoa waiting....

So now I had two kids of my own, both adopted from China. I'm older than my Dad was when I came home from college. Sometimes I want to heave the TV, and take a giant step back into that magical world of picnics, sparklers, pumpkins, and runny noses.
When I hear myself about to say "Hey, let's be quiet!" I hear my mom, and I remember how little they are, and how magical childhood is...
When my kids ask me to read another story to them, and I know I have work to do, I hold my inclination to say, "NO!" and ask them what book.
Its hard to do, sometimes, but I do need to remind myself that although it wasn't perfect, my parents did a pretty decent job, and there are lessons there I can use with my own kids.

Answer 4

yes, but not sheltered. sheltering children doesnt allow them to problem solve, self sooth, self entertain and self monitor his/her own behavior. it screws them up where they are unable to cope, and it effects all of their relationships for life.

no hyperparenting either that also screws kids up;

http://www.hyperparenting.com/

http://www.hyper-parenting.com/start.htm