Are we loving our children to death?
Authors Stephen Glenn and Jane Nelson say that we are the only species that actually puts our young at risk by overprotecting them.
Isn’t it time we talked about what Keeping our Children Safe! Is really all about?
Fear has infiltrated the minds and hearts of too many families in our society. With the news filled with the horrors of child pornography and child abduction, many parents spin into panic, determined to protect their child at any cost.
In their panic to protect children, parents may actually put them at greater risk. Desperate to keep them safe parents sometimes seek to instill fear in their children. “Don’t talk to strangers; Stay inside where it’s “safe”; Stay off the internet chat lines. Look out! Be careful.”
Such imposed fear may shut down the greatest chance of survival our child has in any situation – his connection to his own instincts which have the ability to keep him safe. I remember a journalist’s story of three boys, who narrowly avoided abduction, save for one of the boy’s intuition and instinctual survival skills. The three boys were walking home from school when a car pulled alongside. The lone man in the car told the boys their fathers had ordered him to pick them up and insisted they get in. While two of the boys readily complied, the third ran quickly to a neighborhood home, the police were called, and the boys returned safely home. When the journalist investigated why the third boy ran for help while the first two climbed in immediately, she discovered that although all three boys knew never to take rides with strangers, the first two boys came from strict authoritarian homes. Both were afraid of defying their fathers. The third boy came from a home where he was taught to listen first to his own intuition (a very necessary survival skill), and had considerably more responsibility and personal power in his life.
If you really want to keep your children safe, help them stay connected to their intuition and instincts.
© Maggie Reigh 2006
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