Persuasive Text About Overprotection

Statement of intent

Writing a persuasive text from the P.O.V of a concerned parent about how others are parenting their children to explain that parents are too overprotective of their children. If there was one thing I could change in the world, it would be to change how protective parents are of their children and to change where the blame is directed when something does happen to their children.

When was the last time your child fell over and hurt themselves? Did they cry and kick and scream over a cut they got on their hand while playing outside? Did you as a parent help them to get better and let them know it’s okay, and that they’ll be fine? Or are you a parent that once their child hurts themselves once, you have to be there to make sure it doesn’t happen again?

Children today are taught about the dangers of everything. Don’t run on the paths, you’ll get hurt. Don’t hang upside down on the monkey bars, you’ll fall. Don’t play in the sun without a hat, you’ll get burnt. We have so much at our disposal in means of fun and activities, but there are so many guidelines to follow. This teaching of danger is provided by the parents of today’s society. Parents are so protective of their children nowadays its becoming a little bit outrageous.

Children should be left to experience now things for themselves, without their parents holding their hands the whole time. Now I’m not saying that children should be left to wander the street at 1.00am or go to parties when they are 11 years old, but they should have more freedom than what they are given today.

Last week I had a friend over for a coffee and our children were playing in the back yard. My son is twelve and my friend’s son is 11. We live down the road from a park, it’s almost next door to our house. My son asked my friend and I if they could ride their bikes to the park and play on the playground. My immediate answer was “yes of course, go right ahead”, which seemed to concern my friend.

She said they could only ride down if we accompanied them. I was momentarily confused. I told her that we can see the park from the balcony, so why don’t we go up there to watch them? She said no. She said that she had to be there to make sure nothing happened to her child. Now, it’s not like I didn’t want to go to the park, but I trust my son enough to let him ride his bicycle down the road.

After this encounter is when I began to think. If there was one thing I could change in this world, it would be how protective parents today are of their children. Our kids are wrapped in bubble wrap, cushioned and cut off from the real world. They will never know what a grazed knee or a bump on the elbow feels like. They will always feel like they need a parent by their side in any new thing they try.

What’s changed in the world that has been so drastic as to stop children playing in the sun without a hat? A child isn’t going to understand why they have to wear a hat to play on the playground. To them, if they forgot their hat that day, they are excluded from and fun and isolated from their friends out in the sun all because their parents don’t want them to get sunburnt. If a child got sunburnt,