The Parental Balancing Act of Sheltering vs. Free Range Parenting
Yesterday I wrote about the rising levels of depression among children. My suggestion for parents to reduce this risk was to work to raise resilient kids. Obviously, this is easier said than done. This is truly a parental balancing act.
Resiliency is a learned behavior. It is not a characteristic humans are born with. It’s something that takes time and experience to develop. The more resilient a child, the better they can overcome and persevere through obstacles, adversity, misfortune, and unwanted change. The more a parent shelters a child, the less opportunity that child has to experience situations that build resiliency. However, what if you remove the shelter and your child gets hurt?
This is the double edge sword that parents must learn to navigate. Shelter your child too much, and your child will grow up fragile without the ability to cope with the real world. Go to far with “free-range parenting“, and risk exposing your child to dangers that could ruin their life. So the trick is toeing the line without crossing it.
I believe a good first step for a parent to learn how to toe this line is to study the four basic parenting styles and understand how each style impacts their children. Below is a short video that provides a detailed overview of the parenting styles. In addition, this video provides a specific recommendation for which style will help you raise resilient children.