Is it possible to over-protect a child?

Answer 1

Absolutely. To the point as actually destroying their self esteem, as the child will not think he/she is capable of being able of making a decision without someone else's help every time. The child will also lack the independence that everyone needs to be able to survive and cope in every day life situations. But I do think that a child has to be taught self respect, morals, and limits and boundaries.

Answer 2

Yes, it is and it can happen especially if the person has had a situation in his/her past where they were harmed as a child or could not get pregnant and finally had a child. Children are going to bump, break, scratch, fall, get a bruise knee, bruise forehead and a black eye or two, but if the child is truly healthy and happy, he will survive it, children need to be fed, nutured, loved, protected from predators, bullies, and the elements - they will pick up dirt, lint, and their little curious minds will put things in their mouths etc., so let the child be a child unless there is truly some reason on why this child would need to be overly and overtly protected.

Answer 3

Depends on what your protecting them from.......

You need to let a child explore & experiance new and exciting things that life has to offer.
Holding a child back will more less give them a crutch and shy them away from trying things.

However.... YOU can NEVER give to much protection to a child when it comes to preditors, melestors or any thing in that catagory of ppl.

Only you as a parent can be the best judge though to what you would call "over-protecting".

good luck!

Answer 4

Well that comes down to ones definition of "over-protect". The term itself implies that there is an abundance of protection, more then the necessary amount.

Everyone, child or adult needs to get into a certain amount of unsafe aspects of life, or at least have a full understanding of them in order to fully understand the safe aspects of life.

Ultimately, as long as the child is happy and loved typically you'll be alright with the choices you make to raise them.

Answer 5

Yes, because it's not possible to protect a child from everything. Eventually that child will have to make their own choices, so if you over protect them they won't really be prepared for it. I think teaching them is the best weapon, spending time and getting to know them instead of assuming you know who they are or will become. Over protection leads to rebellion for a reason.

Answer 6

The Overprotected Child



Healthy relationships between parents and children develop out of a balance of two ingredients: love and discipline. When there’s an absence of love and an exercise of super control, we produce children with emotional problems. A youngster who isn’t loved will wither like a plant without water.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Overprotection usually stems from anxiety over unresolved issues in the parents’ past.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What is less understood is that when we tip the scales the other way — toward a dominant love that makes confrontation and discipline impossible — we cause equally severe difficulties.

Recent books on child-rearing or parenting put an emphasis on making sure a child knows he's loved, giving time to the child, serving the child, being with the child. All those things are true, but there are very few warnings that if you go too far in that direction — and there's no discipline to accompany it — a child will ironically learn to dislike himself.

When the scales are off-balance, regardless of the direction, you can produce an overdependency within your children that handicaps them emotionally. They become ill equipped to resolve conflict and confront the realities of life on their own. As a result, they develop low self-confidence and a warped sense of what the world and relationships are like.

Answer 7

Yes and no.

1.) Yes, if a parent's intentions are to prevent anything negative or adverse from ever happening to a child.

2.) No, if a parent's intentions are to shield a child from society's baser and more negative aspects: such as excessive exposure to sex and violence, etc.

As far as the first item is corncerned, Dory in 'Finding Nemo'
answered this best: "If nothing ever happened to your son, nothing would EVER happen to him. Not much fun for little Harpo." I may not have quoted this accurately, or verbatim, but the correct quote can be found in the Disney movie.

When a parent makes this decison, it should be towards raising the best and most well-rounded adult possible.

Hope this helps!

Answer 8

Protecting a child is an innate trait that we never overcome as people. Although I am not a parent myself, I have over 10 years experience in working with school aged children. What I have observed through working with children (i.e. building relationships lasting more than one year), is that when we as adults are teaching them invaluable life skills; there has to come a time when children are allowed the space or opportunity to put into practice all that we have taught them. It's like a mother bird teaching her baby to fly through modeled behavior, communication, discipline, etc.; followed by the opportunity to put it all into practice. Another example with children is that if we as adults hinder this natural process, than we are not doing the child any favors by doing the things or making the decisions for them; we are actually crippling them and not allowing them to learn for themselves. Furthermore, with regards to preparing a child for the "real world"; this has to be done with loving care and not as though you are putting them into a sink or swim situation. Allowing a child to "grow" into themselves and use their cognitive thinking is sometimes uncomfortable as the adult especially when you know what is coming around the corner. I have been mentoring a young woman who is 18 years old for the last year or so. It's difficult since she is homeless, has no relationship with her biological family; and depends heavily on her church family for guidance. Sometimes it's painful to fathom the thought of her being hurt in her "personal growth" into womanhood; however all I can do is continue to support her and be there whenever she does get hurt to process the experience and prepare for the next time. HTH (:-)) May you be blessed through this journey...

Answer 9

I believe it is. A child needs to grow and learn things through interaction and action. If you over-protect that child, not allowing him or her to do much aside from being home, that child won't grow into the amazing person he or she was meant to become. They may also eventually want to escape to something worse than scrapes and bruises, or bullies (i.e. drugs and things in the same category). I think the essential is to allow a child to use his or her imagination and allow the child to act like a child. A parent protects their child because they don't want their kid to make mistakes, but it is only through mistakes that the child learns.

Answer 10

Yes- it is. We certainly want to protect our children from injury and illness and even from hard times, but, if we protect them too much we will deny them the opportunity to learn to cope with life- to develop some resiliency to deal when things are not going well.

Life has its ups and downs- for all of us!

Best wishes
from a grandma-aged person