The Overprotected Kid

In Bob Clark’s, A Christmas Story, Randy, the main character’s younger brother, is getting ready for school, with the help from his Mom, an overprotective parent. In the scene, Randy had to get on several jackets, snow pants, a pair of boots, and some gloves. The mom was the one helping Randy getting on the clothes, and the mom does not suggest taking off a couple of the jackets because it was cold outside. While this scene was fictional, the reality of this situation is all too real, and it comes in the form of helicopter parenting. Helicopter parenting is any parents being overprotective of their children, even kids in college! Parents have gotten to the point where they are overdoing their form of ‘protection’ of their children and parents

Hanna Rosin’s article, The Overprotected Kid, Rosin, an author, explains how Rosin’s life as a kid is different from the Rosin kid’s lives. “....on weekends I barely saw her at all. I, on the other hand, might easily spend every waking Saturday hour with one if not all three of my children, taking one to a soccer game, the second to a theater program, the third to a friend’s house, or just hanging out with them at home” (Rosin, 4). As stated in the text, Rosin spends a lot of time with the family, while Rosin’s mother did not spend a lot of time with Rosin. Helicopter parenting has become the mindset of typical families, including critics of helicopter parenting. While Rosin may want quality time with the family so Rosin does not end up like Rosin’s mother, it still gets to a point where enough is enough. Therefore, a suggestion for this problem would be to maybe play one or two games with the family, and then let the kids have some time alone without supervision. Parents should let their kids have more freedom because the kids need some time

In the article, The Child Trap, written by Joan Acocella, an author, talks about a method parents can use in the store. “.....Buggy Bagg, a protective pad that you insert into the front of the grocery cart before you put the child in....this will guard against ‘viruses, bacteria, and bodily fluids’ left on the cart” (Acocella, 2). This takes over parenting to a new level. It is understandable if the four year old has germaphobic, but that is not very likely, as most four year olds still pick their own noses. Honestly, if someone was using a Buggy Bagg at Walmart, that family would get a lot of weird stares from other people in Walmart. Therefore, the Buggy Bagg is ridiculous because this was made to protect children from germs, which, for the most part, are harmless (germs are also good because when a kid gets sick, the kid will likely become immune to the disease). The Buggy Bagg at the very least has a point to it, but the Kinderkord, a human leash talked about it Gibbs’s article, has no point to it. “‘Kinderkords’ (also known as leashes; they allow ‘three full feet of freedom for both you and your child’)” (Gibbs, 1). First off, the child on the leash is not going to do anything that would hurt the kid. As hard as it is to believe, a child knows that a knife is sharp. Next, this Kinderkord relinquishes both the freedom of the adult and the kid, and freedom is nice to have. Also, if the