This is what overprotective parenting habits are doing to your child! A parent’s duty to a child is to give them love, to care for them, and to keep them safe. However, parents in trying to keep kids safe, often go to extreme lengths. This duty can have detrimental effects on the upbringing of a child.

Deuteronomy 31:6, “Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.”

Today, parents are becoming increasingly concerned about their children’s safety—in the real world and online. It is not unwarranted for parents to be overprotective. Given how the digital world influences people, especially children, there is no doubt that it makes parents feel threatened. To monitor a child’s online activity, many spying applications like Xnspy are available. These apps allow you to track your child’s location, including who they talk to and what they search for online.

Overprotective Parenting

Despite the apparent advantages, the counter-argument to using these applications is that it hampers the freedom that a child should enjoy. Our generation of parents are overprotective and often overbearing; this can lead a child to feel suffocated. A child needs space to grow, to make mistakes, and learn from them. This space makes them free and independent thinkers. Closely monitoring a child’s activity could be counter-productive to the upbringing of a child, but in today’s world, it has become a necessity. How can parents find a balance between being protective and letting their kids do what they want?

Constant micromanagement makes children overly dependent on their parents. You need to stop this! Allow your children to take responsibility for themselves. Let them do things even if it is not the right way. These are some ways that parents can learn to ease up a bit. But this is easier said than done. Nevertheless, parents need to let go of overprotective habits.

You may have heard of the term “helicopter parenting” and what it does to a child. With this style of parenting, parents want their kids to enjoy life and grow as individuals but tend to provide a controlled environment for their kids. Overprotective parents, or any parent for that matter, have good intentions and want their kids to excel in life. What parents don’t realize is that their parenting habits are leading their kids to failure.

Parenting Your Children

When these kids grow up, they have a sense of entitlement. Being shielded away from problems their entire lives, when real-life challenges hit these kids, they falter instead of facing them head-on. Being always under the protection of their parents, when these kids grow into adults and find themselves making mistakes, it can cause them to feel insecure about themselves. It also makes these kids dependent on others, which is alarming as these kids become adults.

To keep their kids safe, parents believe that they have a right to choose every aspect of their kid’s life. Parents want the best for their children; however, being too protective kills a child’s curiosity to explore on their terms.

Being a parent is not easy. You are always on your feet, ready to pounce at any problem facing your child. However, this may be doing more harm than good. To enable our children to live a healthy and happy life, as parents, we need to let our parental instinct ease in situations where the risk is minimal. This risk does not mean that we forgo protecting our children.

For more reading materials on Overprotective Parenting Habits, see below:

1. Teach Godly Truths, Imperfect Parents
2. UNCOMMEN: Parenting Study
3. Role Reversal: Parenting and Investing