BY MINDY HARVEY
I have a question for you.
When did it become a ‘bad thing’, a negative, to be a protective parent?
I get it. Children are more likely to be abused or harmed by someone they know rather than a stranger. Police officers, child abuse experts and even free-range parenting advocates are now continually reminding us that it’s not the ‘man in the white van’ we need to be afraid of. Rather it’s that family friend who is more likely to be abusing our kids.
I’m not about to argue with the statistic or the advice of the experts. But I will say this: Please stop telling me that stranger danger is a myth.
Please stop making out that I’m a paranoid ‘helicopter’ parent because I want to drive or walk with my child to school. Stop making out that I’m over-protective because at seven, I don’t let my daughter walk to the shops alone. Or am wary of sleep-overs at the houses of families I barely know.
And please stop telling me off for sharing any stories on Facebook about suspected child abductions.
You see, last week a friend told me off for something I’d shared earlier in the year on Facebook.