Overprotectiveness, a Thief of Dignity and Potential
Ronnaye Gay
ENG/100
08/11/2020
Denise Wolff
Overprotectiveness, a Thief of Dignity and Potential
Throughout life, people begin to understand that everyone is not nice, and
everyone does not have one’s best interest at heart. It is understood as early as
elementary school that children can be cruel. As life progresses more lessons are
learned about people. Cruel children can turn into cruel teenagers and even cruel
adults. These cruel individuals can make life difficult on the people that they bully. In
the article “The Dignity of Risk Going to College”, the author (Jackie Schwabe) makes
this point known as she provides a realization about herself and her child. Jackie
realizes that trying to protect her child can cause more harm than good (Schwabe,
2019). I agree with Jackie’s stance because being an overprotective parent can rob a
child or their dignity and potential future.
First, the author views overprotectiveness as being a robber of dignity. Dignity is
gained through understandings one’s worth and value. Jackie reveals that if a child is
not able to make his or her own mistakes then this will rob them of their dignity
(Schwabe, 2019). Not having the ability to take pride in one’s accomplishments will
eventually become a dignity there. No accomplishments will more than likely lead to the
child feeling as if he or she cannot be able to complete tasks.
Secondly, the author makes known that over protectiveness can prevent a child
from their potential future. Overprotective parents limit their child’s understanding of
themselves (Schwabe, 2019). If the parent is always there to make save the day, then
the child will never comprehend what they are able to do well and own their own. For
example, if a parent always puts on a child’s clothing and undresses them then the child
will never learn how to do such tasks on their own. They will always need the
assistance of the parent to dress and undress them. They are never given the
opportunity to learn how to complete such tasks on their own. As a result, the child will
always be dependent on the parent and will lose the potential of taking care of
themselves in the future.
In conclusion, the author brought up a few points that one can agree with. An
overprotective parent may feel that they are doing good, but their overprotectiveness is
preventing the child from thriving. An overprotective child will lose the ability to obtain
dignity and to reach their full potential in the future.
References
Schwabe, J. (2019). The Dignity of Risk Going to College. Exceptional Parent, 20-22.