I’m an overprotective parent. Is that ok? — The Daddly Dad
No and yes? Yes and no? Kinda? There are an infinite amount of ways to answer a question like that. Let’s look at this from a high-level pov so we don’t get too deep into the muck. The world is huge. The world can be scary. The world will chew you up and spit you out. Most of us have heard it or experienced it firsthand so being what some would call overprotective is a perfectly normal response to try to make sure your hatchlings make it out to sea. Here are some things we need to remember:
This is nothing new.
There’s always that one person that loves to bring up how safe the good old days were. Guess what? According to widely available crime statistics, crime has largely decreased in many major cities throughout the country going back to the 1980s and ’90s to the current day. One disturbing statistic that directly affects us and our families, in particular, has been the staggering increase in Active Shooter events going from 1 in 2000 to 20 in 2019. What’s going to help us feel confident as fathers to allow our kids to have any opportunity to be free-range as we were during our childhoods back in the day? Thankfully, this is the 21st century and we have a truckload of options out there that will help us fight the good fight in keeping our kids safe and joining us at the dinner table night after night. Even if they try their hardest to tell you as little about their day as possible.
You can’t be everywhere to protect them.
Many of us will stop at nothing to keep our kids free of harm (including bubble wrap!). Others would rather see their offspring “earn” the same bumps, bruises, and broken hearts that they endured as they came of age. While we’d love to say there’s no wrong answer, let’s choose to be productive and say that the best approach is balancing extremes. Having a firm understanding and visibility of your child’s chain of custody throughout the day is a crucial piece of the pie here. Staying up to speed about the people your kiddos come in contact with throughout the day at their various places of activity. Back to school night, camp orientation, and only interacting with the owner of the local Kumon center are not enough to be satisfied. Get to know the folks that play a role in your child’s life. Learn their names and shake their hands. Trust me. The effort will have you feeling better.
Use The Force, but don’t overdo it my guy.
Originally published at https://daddlydad.com on December 1, 2021.
