If you are an overprotective parent chances are that your child will either develop into an overtly shy introvert or a totally out of control dissenter.
Just like too much of something is never good, being a shadow around your children day in and day out is definitely not recommended.
Parents should function more as facilitators in the development of the child at least after a certain age and not as someone who controls the development of the child at every stage.
A little leeway and moderately monitored independence definitely helps create a more balanced and healthy child, which is able to hold its own in this big bad world.
Unfortunately quite a few parents do not know where to draw the line and often fail to keep the natural instinct of fiercely protecting one's offspring within acceptable limits ,thereby ending up doing more harm than actual good.
Overprotective parents have to realize that they cannot hold their child's hand throughout its life.
At some point of time, children may actually begin to resent parents for being so meddlesome in all their affairs.
Worse still, they may develop into individuals who are insecure , seriously lack confidence and are completely unprepared to face the real world having being so dependent on the parents all along and never having been encouraged to interact and develop interpersonal skills .
By guarding them and ensuring that they are there to take care of things every step of the way some parents deprive children of the opportunity to slip up, falter, make mistakes and learn from them, something that is so critical to the development of one's personality and social skills .
Only when a child fails faces emotional and physical harm, suffers a broken heart or a few broken bones does he or she learn how to cope.
On the other hand you have children who have a little bit of that natural rebellious streak which just gets worse when they are not allowed to take their own decisions, cannot do things their own way and are always being told what to do and how to do it.
Sometimes you don't even have to be a natural rebel.
The frustration and forced dependence just riles them so much that even a docile child may end up revolting.
Overprotective parents of teenagers especially often find themselves at the receiving end forcing them to introspect and figure out if they are going wrong as parents somewhere.
The teenage years have their way of eliciting the strangest behavior and if you have made the mistake of being an excessively shielding parent you had better prepare yourself for facing the worst in case your child opts for the rebellious path rather than the diffident one.
Not all children who have led a sheltered life easily adapt to independent life particularly in the case of those who have to move out of home to go to college .
That is if they are allowed to move away from their homes in the first place.
The failure to differentiate between and identify what is right and what is wrong , on their own ,without help from parents which they are so accustomed to may send some spinning out of control.
Often you may find these very kids indulging in binge drinking, substance abuse and petty crimes in a desperate attempt to blend in.
A few others may end up being depressed and lonely because they just don't seem to fit in.
School and college administrators are always wary of over anxious parents.
Not only do these parents not give their children the opportunity to lead a normal life, they also tend to meddle in school and college affairs.
It is not rare to see a parent barge in to accost teachers whenever the child has an overload of homework, gets low grades or has not been given a slot on the school basketball team.
In trying to do everything right in their children's lives and creating a perfect world for them, if one does really exist, parents fail to let them face the realities of life.
It definitely does not help to molly-coddle a child right up to adulthood and sometimes even beyond and then regret that the child has not turned out the way they had hoped it would.
As parents they always have the right to judge what a child should or shouldn't do .
After all the adage "parents know best" stems from the fact that they have spent a good number of years in this world and have definitely garnered more experience than the child.
Parents would always want to protect their children from any bad experiences that they might have come across while growing up.
However, parents should assess what their children are capable of and how safe they will be and sometimes let go and allow the child to experience things on its own rather than assuming that every path that the child takes is potentially dangerous.
Only when parents step back ,take a reality check and let the child breathe can they be assured of their children growing up to be trusting, confident and independent adults.