Are the most protected children the most unhappy?
No father wants his son to have a bad time. The concern of every parent is to ensure the integrity of their children, but we must remember certain limits. Protecting a child too much supposes subtracting autonomy from him, isolating him in a bubble that not only prevents him from facing the setbacks of life, but also can cause him to feel unhappy.
Something that explains Fernando Sarráis, psychiatrist and psychologist from the University of Navarra, at the Sant Joan de Déu Hospital. This expert says that by preventing the suffering of children, a much worse feeling is generated in them: the fear of setbacks that they do not know how to manage. In the kids overprotected Any trifle is capable of causing great stress in them.
The pursuit of happiness
Sarráis explains that although it seems illogical, suffer help to be happy. The formation of personality is very important for every individual and develops during childhood and adolescence. During these ages we must pay attention to the evolution of the character of the children. Educating by avoiding bad moments involves raising children by making them feel afraid of any setback.
People who do not know how to handle themselves at the moment and live with constant fear of them enter into very negative spirals that leads them to lie, make excuses to avoid plans, greater feeling of frustration, anger, sadness, envy. Feelings that distance them from the happiness and love of those around them, which means depriving them of another element of personality formation
By overprotecting a child, it is most likely that we are generating fear of suffering. The only way to deal with these moments is traversing them. Sarráis exemplifies this issue with the fear of speaking in public, which is overcome by speaking in public. If a child gets used to avoiding the negative emotions that the world produces, as an adult it will be much harder to cope with this learning.
Education tips to avoid overprotection
Education is very important for children and parents should take advantage of it to avoid overprotection and teach children to handle these situations:
- Educate in adversity. Without the virtue of facing adversity, children will hardly be happy. At this point you can teach this point from many points such as saying No to all your whims to learn that you can not always have what they want.
- Let children suffer when they touch. This does not mean that they can not be supported, but neither should we alleviate every small adverse situation they face. You have to let them work on their autonomy and let them be the ones who ultimately fix their problems.
- Lead by example. Children are imitators, they learn by imitating what they see in their parents and create habits. It is very important that parents are good role models, that they teach to suffer with good humor and put a good face on bad weather.
Damián Montero
