Good one Mum and Dad

 

The other day I read an article in the Courier Mail that spoke about the current generation of children who are wrapped up in cotton wool by their parents. These parents are so overprotective that they don’t allow their children to get up to any sort of messy, risky, mischievous or unsupervised activity. Despite being only 18 years of age I don’t believe I have been a victim of this style of parenting. Here is a brief and incomplete list of things I did as a child that would horrify the modern day parent:

·         Cut my entire fringe off by myself at 5 years old. School photos were literally the next day.

·         Continued to climb grandma’s backyard tree despite knowing my cousin had fallen out of said tree and dislocated his elbow

·         Walked to the park with just my cousins. At 9 years old I was the veteran…..

·         Set my pants on fire at 4 years old because I was standing too close to the heater

·         Stole lollies from the local supermarket at 8 years old. My mum was absolutely livid and I didn’t see the light of day for about a week…..

·         Attempted to back flip off a swing at 9 years old. Subsequently I face planted into the sand. It was great.

·         Built mud pies in the backyard with my cousins and sisters AND lived to tell the tale.

·         Got lost a couple of times in the shopping centre. The highlight was having to call mum and dad over the loud speaker so that they could collect their darling daughter from the store.

·         Split my head open as a result of jumping on mum and dad’s bed and landing head first on their bedside table.

I would like to stress how wonderfully caring my parents were (and still are!). Basically I was a free-spirited child who didn’t necessarily think before I acted and my parents weren’t so overbearing that we never had any freedom. I believe they gave us our freedom, but we knew where the boundaries lay. The aforementioned incidents were the result of encouragement from my cousins and my willingness to try just about anything. Anyway, I learnt my lesson after making these mistakes. Isn’t that how children are supposed to grow??

Parents who don’t let their children experience the simple joys of childhood are hurting their kids. My parents gave us just the right mix of protection and freedom and I am thankful I had the opportunity to ‘mess up’ a couple of times on my own.

                                                           That's more like it....