Overprotective parents - like or dislike?
I think overprotective parents are bad for children's development. Children who are protected by their parents don't know how to do housework, such as doing the laundry, or how to cook healthy food. Some children even don't know how to tie their shoelaces as they do not need to do it - their parents or helper will do it for them.
In the long run, having overprotective parents means children will not be able to stand on their own feet. They don't learn to take care of themselves. The only things that they focus on is academic success.
Some people might say that having protective parents will prevent children from being hurt by society. But I don't think this is true. Our parents are older than us, and when they die, they won't be there for us.
The best way to protect children, and give them a good future, is to let them learn how to take care of themselves. All in all, having overprotective parents is bad for children.
Kylie Fok Hei-tung, Lui Cheung Kwong Lutheran College
From the Editor
Thank you for your letter, Kylie. I wonder if you read our cover on tiger mums the other day. You are right. There are all sorts of things wrong with having overprotective parents, as we know. Academic learning is not the be-all-and-end-all of life. Children need to fail, and fail often, because they will fail as adults, and if they have never learned to deal with it, they will find themselves unable to cope.
But, apart from that, there are many other lessons these children miss out on. Learning to deal with people and different personalities, knowing how to react when they don't get their way, learning to share and be generous, to name but a few.
Parents' instinct is usually to give kids a better life than they had. But as we can see, that might not always be a good idea.
Susan, Editor