Living in a Glass House

Sometimes I feel bad about being a worry wart parent. It effects the way my children are being raised and the way they are experiencing the world.

My children rarely go outside. It's too difficult with just myself to watch them in the front as you can't fence it in our neighborhood. So each time we wander outside it's to the back deck or the back yard and that time is always limited. One child will get tired before the other or one will want to do something else. And so I wrangle them all back inside with me and there we stay, one child always left looking out the window, wishing to play in the grass.

I remember when I was a kid. I could go outside, even at a very young age, into our fenced yard and play to my hearts content. I have vivid memories of catching butterflies and climbing trees. All while my Mother stayed inside. She would check up on me from time to time of course but not too often. Back then things were different. Back then a child could be a child, a Mom could turn her back for more than 1 minute at a time.

It's sad when you think about it. I fear for the future of my grandchildren. Maybe I should stop being so overprotective, maybe then they can experience life as god intended. But I know I won't be able to, not now at least. The world just isn't safe enough anymore and children are all too often the ones to suffer because of it.