True and False: Good parents worry.
Some parents don’t feel like they are a good parent if they aren’t worrying all the time. Paranoid Parents doesn’t tell you to stop worrying. Most parents want to be involved with our kids. Child safety is important. But two things go wrong with our ‘safety’ parenting.
1. The scariest threats seem the most important. The most horrific tragedies take over our minds and the likely dangers to our kids are missed. It is a tragedy when any one child is hurt and we are not diminishing that death when we admit that the cause of the tragedy is rare. Kidnapping by a stranger ending tragically, especially to elementary school age children, are extremely rare. Often one or two in 40 million children. But the thought is so horrible that it takes place over one child being seriously injured in a car accident every time we blink.
2. It is hard to shake the feeling that if it happened once, it won’t happen in our neighborhood, to my child. Some parents spend time preparing for every danger. Fixing every possible threat is not parenting. We wouldn’t pack a snow shovel for a vacation in Las Vegas because it snows there once every five years. But we feel we must take those precautions when it comes to our children. A tragedy may make 24/7 news coverage but happen on average less than once a year (like school shooting incidents). One child in 83 million may be injured or killed. But we find it hard not to feel like we should be prepared for everything.
Parents should be concerned, they should empathize for those who have had a tragedy—but know what is likely to happen in your area, in your child’s age group.
Some things that parents want to buy a fix for are about as likely as a meteor hitting your car. Do you wear hats lined with tin foil to stop possible radiation getting to you from the LCD displays of digital watches? That sounds crazy. Well, it could be a threat, just as many of the highly publicized dangers are to your child.
Buy shower Wellington boots so your child won’t slip in the shower. Do you fear your child’s lifelong trauma because you didn’t use a wipe warmer for his little bottie? A helmet for learning to walk. Put down a bath mat. Wipe warmers cause fires. Learning to get up after falling down is an essential life skill, persistence.
Curb your paranoia. Use your parenting common sense.
Does this threat actually happen a lot? See The Paranoid Parents Guide or email me and the experts. info@paranoidparentsguide.com
