Do you think our society's overprotectiveness could do more harm than good?

[isabelsmummy]

Originally Posted by happysmileylady Yes, I absolutely think that so many parents today are so over protective and I do think that's going to hurt us as a society, if it hasn't already. The thing is, people learn by doing. Kids learn to be independent by being independent. A child cannot learn to cross the street by themselves until they start crossing the street by themselves. They cannot learn how to handle themselves at a party without mom until they are at a party without mom. They cannot learn how to pay their own bills until they pay their own bills. When we put off teaching kids how to do these things because they are "just kids" then we end up with adults who are still kids, because we haven't raised them to be adults.

I completely agree.
If I want my daughter to be an independent adult at 19, I can't wait until she's 16 to let her go to the mall by herself! It has to start sooner.

The one thing that can be a challenge is that, sure, although the kids used to be out playing and running around, they weren't really unsupervised. Every house had a mom at home who kept an eye on things. (my brother got caught *every* time he did something stupid!) I know that people still do that, but there just aren't as many of them out there.