Check out this informative article, Overprotected Kids: How to Let Kids Take Risks. Boys especially need opportunities to take positive risks and opportunities to be responsible. A positive risk for a child could be as simple as holding a wiggly bug in their hands, climbing up a ladder to go down a slide, or cutting paper with scissors. A responsibility for a young child might be having them help prepare a meal and then carry a bowl full of food to the table.
The following was at the bottom of the above article and I really felt it worth repeating:
4 things kids need to hear
Children covet facing positive risks and taking on responsibility because they'll hear four affirming messages from adults and peers, Michael Ungar says in his book Too Safe for Their Own Good.
1.YOU BELONG. Risk and responsibility give a child a sense she fits in somewhere.
2.YOU'RE TRUSTWORTHY. When others trust a child, the child will trust himself.
3.YOU'RE RESPONSIBLE. Children relish the opportunity to be seen as soon-to-be grown-ups.
4.YOU'RE CAPABLE. If adults identify special abilities in children, they'll feel capable of making good decisions for themselves.
I hope that you will give your child opportunities to take positive risks and to be responsible.
