Are You An Über-Parent?
A reader of ours shared an interesting article published in The Independent last week (thanks, David) and indeed, it was a thought-provoking piece that led to this post. The article is entitled “Over-parenting is the curse of our time.” Basically, the premise is that more and more parents in the UK are doing more than what is expected of them as parents. Indeed, they are behaving in such a way that they are stifling their children and robbing them of the chance to live their lives normally.
How so? The article relates how children who are over-parented (if there is such a word) and cannot deal with what life dishes out to them on their own. Technology and society, as a whole, do no seem to be helping out in this matter – cell phones, for example, become tools for parents to hold on tight to their children all the more.
So what do I think about this? I can see the truth behind the article’s ideas. Indeed, I have met a lot of people – both parents and children – who are in this situation. An adult of 21 could very well be on his own two feet but instead is tied to his mum’s apron strings. I am not sure about what the article says regarding this situation being more common in rich families, though. I believe that over-parenting can happen with the middle class as well. After all, it is not merely money that dictates this overwhelming sense of protectiveness. It is the parents’ desire to make sure that everything goes on well with their child’s life.
Being as protective as I am, I am glad that I read this article. I just hope that I won’t end up being an über-parent.
February 19th, 2008 at 4:51 am
Too true. Many parents work themselves up into a nervous frenzy of worry. It is normal to worry about your children of course, but ‘over-parenting’ can kill development of indepenence in kids, and increase their reliance on their parents in later life.