Bubble Wrap & Helicopters
Published by Nichole on 22 January 2010.Q: Bubble Wrap & Helicopters, what do they have in common?
I'll give you a hint, it's not a new Canada Post delivery option.
A: Parenting.
Bubble Wrapped, that's the trendy new term describing the kids who are being parented in that whole weird (extreme) safety first way.
Now, I will say I feel a little bit strange commenting on the way others choose to parent their children because I don't yet have any of my own, but I've noticed these days it seems kids can't do anything!
No snowball fights, no puddle jumping, no crossing the street alone, no playing at the park with your friends, no staying home alone until you're 15. No No NO!
When I was younger, I believed my mom to be very overprotective. But by today's standards she'd be pretty much endangering my life on a daily basis! I was allowed to walk to school, play in the dirt (no hand sanitizer), cross the street to go to the store, and play at the park unsupervised. I was allowed to eat chocolate and peanut butter (I was even allowed to spread the peanut butter on with a KNIFE!) It's scandalous, I know.
I was always outside playing with friends, and if I wasn't home by supper then MAYBE someone would start to worry a little, but more likely they'd be simmering over my being late and trying to think of a suitable punishment. Most kids I knew had keys to the house by the time they were 12 and could let themselves in to wait a couple of hours for mom to get home. This was completely normal.
When did the world become perceived as so dangerous that kids are no longer allowed to be kids? To try things on their own and make mistakes? When did parents stop allowing kids to make some of their own decisions, and learn from the outcome? How will they become functional adults without this experience?
The answer I'm afraid is that they wont. These bubble wrapped kids grow up with their helicopter parents hovering over them, hand sanitizer at the ready, overseeing and micromanaging every aspect of their lives. They grow into the teenagers whose parents dispute their grades for them, and eventually into the adults whose parents call to make their doctors appointments and set up job interviews for them.
I understand that parents want their children to be safe and have the best possible life, but (unfortunately) they can't be protected from everything, the world is not always nice or easy or fair, and I worry that without the benefit of childhood experience and learned consequences we'll have an entire generation that just can't cope. So instead of bubble wrap, couldn't we just give them pool noodles and let them test the waters a little?
