The overprotective mum and the helmet

Mums come in all shapes and sizes with different ways of parenting their kids. There are those who let their kids roam free in nature, those who have their children involved in every after school activity imaginable, those who let their little one try anything and then there’s me - the overprotective mum.

 

If I could, I would totally wrap my little one in bubble wrap but I have yet to find one big enough.

 

I don’t know where my overprotective need came from, I certainly wasn’t wrapped in cotton wool myself while growing up, but it’s something that’s really hard to change.

 

And while there is definitely nothing wrong with being too safe, sometimes, even I have to admit, the overprotective mum can go a tad too far.

 

I don’t know if it is because she is my one and only, or if it’s simply how I parent, but to me everything is a potential danger. It even went as far as getting the poor child to wear a multicoloured, padded helmet when she was younger.

 

Originally intended to protect her head while she was learning to walk – which is a GENIUS idea - it eventually went on to become the bubble wrap that I was so desperately searching for. There were even knee pads.... you know to protect her teeny, tiny knees while she was crawling around.

 

Unfortunately, while my need to protect her stems from a good place, I am starting to come across as a bit of a nag. My favourite phrases these days vary between: ‘no, don’t do that,’ ‘careful now...’ and ‘that looks a bit dangerous, don’t you think?’

 

As she grows, and her confidence and desire to do scary, challenging - and, to me, terrifying - things intensifies, I need to draw the line between protecting her and letting her be the adventurous, thrill-seeker that she is.

 

Mary Byrne is a staff writer at MummyPages and mum to a horse-crazy, sports-mad, seven-year-old girl.