Contrary to popular belief, parents' overprotection of their children is an attitude that can cause problems. Giving the child more control and attention than necessary may cause problems for the child's development. Because of these extreme attitudes, the child may become overly dependent on others, lack self-confidence, and have emotional disappointments. This addiction, which continues throughout the child's life, affects him/her negatively and prevents the child from being self-sufficient. Overprotectiveness of parents also affects the child's school success and adaptation to school.
So much so that children who wait for their mothers to feed them even though they are 7-8 years old, share the same bed with their parents even though they are school age, cannot choose their own clothes, and are even washed by their mothers. there is. In such an environment, the intertwined relationship of the mother or father with the child may cause the child to become dependent on others.
In this case, the child is not allowed to grow up. This overly protective environment hinders the child's "social development". This may negatively affect his/her relationships in his social environment and cause him to be excluded by his friends. While peers can make their own decisions, a child with an overprotective family may feel inadequate and insecure around them.
Families may think that they are actually doing their children a favor by saying "let's make life easier for our children so that they don't have any difficulties", but this may negatively affect their future lives. For example, let's take a child who gets everything he wants immediately. This child, who has not encountered any difficulties, whose food has been delivered to him, his room has been tidied up by his mother, and even his homework has been done by the family, will be happy with this situation at an early age, but when the social environment expands and his responsibilities increase, he will begin to experience hesitation. Because now he has to achieve something himself, but he is not used to this situation at all. As a result of all these, children may turn into people who are afraid of making mistakes, have difficulty coping with life, are sensitive, introverted, and have difficulty expressing themselves due to fear of rejection, as their self-confidence is not sufficiently developed. Problems that started at school and in the circle of friends led to marriage and work problems in the following years. It may start to become evident in the later stages of life, and then adaptation problems may occur in work and family life.
So what can we do? First of all, we must provide children with a safe environment. We must create an area where children can move freely but also have boundaries. Because they need both this space and boundaries to discover themselves and their environment.
One of the most important responsibilities of the family is to support the child while preparing him for the difficulties of life. Children should be given reasonable responsibilities. These responsibilities include eating according to age range, choosing clothes, collecting toys, helping when preparing the table, etc. things can happen. There is no need to wait until old age to give responsibility; there is definitely a task suitable for every age. It is very important to fulfill the given responsibility. If someone else assumes the responsibility of the child, the child may become an individual who avoids taking responsibility throughout his life. This attitude will cause difficulties for both the family and the child in the future. There is no such age as too early for responsibility. Starting from the age of 2-3, the child can begin to be given some responsibilities, from easy to difficult. The self-confidence of the child who takes responsibility and achieves things on his own will also improve.
You can show your child that you trust him as much as you can. Thus, his self-confidence will increase. In this way, children who grow up in an environment of trust become self-confident, faithful individuals who value themselves and their environment.
Read: 0
