Dec 31 2009
Letting Our Children Interact With A Normal Environment
The human race has survived because we nurture our children for so many years. The danger lies in our becoming so over-protective that while stunting the natural curiosity of our youngsters, we stop their development on many different levels. There is no hard and fast rule as to what explorations we should allow or prohibit. Every parent struggles with this fine balance using his own set of criteria. Just look at how we treat our newborns.
Our first babies are treated with extreme care because we fear the common household bacteria which he may encounter. We provide him with his personal baby bath and all of the baby washcloths and bath blankets he can use. After stocking up on his special soaps and creams, we try to keep him as germ-free as our ingenuity can arrange. Many parents become hysterical at the sound of people coughing or sneezing within sixty feet of their newborn. They attempt to keep him in a sterile bubble as long as possible. Regular household linens are banned from his life, usually until the toddler stage.
But this approach must be relaxed after the first, very early days of the baby's home life. If he is to survive in this home, he must develop an immune system that can handle the normal germs around the house. Recent reports and recommendations from Doctors suggest the decrease in use of antibacterial products. This is because the only way to strengthen the immune system's defenses is to introduce normal pathogens to the body. Normal household linens will not harm a baby.
Lives are being saved by modern safety equipment for today's children. Most parents try to keep their children from dangers for as long as possible. The use of baby safety monitors keeps many a child from choking to death. Baby's early food supply is ideally breast milk. The development of the easy to use electric breast pump ensures baby's safe nutrition supply at all times. Transportation of children is now safer than ever because of the tough new regulations surrounding child car seats.
But parents must know that as the child grows, he has to tackle his environment with a little less regulation in order to learn by his mistakes. There is no use expecting children to learn what their limits are if they never get to make decisions. We must allow them to make mistakes.
No child will be permanently damaged by being temporarily rebuffed by his environment. He will learn to confront the problem. Then he has a chance to discover how to overcome it.
It is time to allow Junior to try climbing that back yard tree. Stick around and stay close. Encourage his efforts to conquer the climb. It will be worth patching up a skinned knee if he learns to test branch strength before going out on a limb.
Mail this post
Related Posts
No related postsNo responses yet