Parents are naturally over-protective. However, some do take their over-protectiveness some extra miles, inadvertently infantilizing their children in the process. This they do despite their teenagers’ best efforts to assert their independence. Truth is, most over-protective parents think they are actually doing the right thing for their children; keeping them safe from the world and its many troubles. And it is good for parents to do exactly that. But then just as it is the case with everything in life, too much of everything is bad. That said, below are some of the adverse effects of over-protective parenting style. Every parent should read this and be informed.
Over-protective parenting could cause lack of self-confidence in teens. Every child must at some point in their lives leave home and live independently of their parents. But this level of independence must first start gradually, starting with parents relaxing their hold on their children. Failure to do this will result in raising teenagers who are timid and totally unable to survive on their own; lacking confidence. This is probably the worst thing that could happen to any teen.
There is the possibility of teens missing out on their teenagehood. The main reason some parents are overly protective over their children is because they wish to keep them safe from the dangers of youth. Good as that may be, we should also bear in mind that the whole essence of living as a teenager is to be free, live on the edge of glory as Lady Gaga once sang and be fun. So when parents protect teenagers from the very thing that is the essence of their living at the moment, such parents literarily cause their teens to miss their teenagehood. And that is bad.
Over-protective parenting could open the doors to extreme risky behaviour later in life. On the flipside of over-protective parenting is a situation whereby teenagers become totally out of control the moment they are no longer under the direct of their parents. They see their eventual independence from their parents as an opportunity to finally experience all those things they never got the opportunity to do. And because of the possibility of engaging in extremely risky behaviour and without supervision of their parents, hitherto protected teens can very well harm themselves too.
