Title: Bubble Wrapping Your Kids
Author: Christie Barnes
Date: Sunday, September 05, 2010
Article:

Welcome to the Paranoid Parents Guide to Everything you worry about.  This is where to come to cut down on the worries and concerns you have about your children.  I would love to say your worries will vanish but most of us will never stop worrying about our kids entirely.  But maybe you can cut down on the “bubble wrap”.

Riding the bus?  Walking to school?  Skateboarding?  Camps?  Babysitters?  Baseball?  Grandparents?  Schools?  West Nile Disease?  Fruit juice?  Bullying?  Coke?  Drugs?  Ballet turn-out?  Glass drinking glasses?  Plastic toys?  H1N1?  School snipers?  Fruit juice?  Kidnapping?  Amusement parks?  Swimming pools?  Mad cow disease?  Dog bites? Eating disorders?…

Parents have a lot to think about or should I say, worry about.

A relentless tsunami of real concerns and challenges threaten to engulf every parent’s fortitude and turn a parent into a worrier.  Worrying can become a habit and an addiction.

Warriors not worriers. Paranoid parents are not worrying wimps.  Paranoid parents are parent warriors without a priority list.  Paranoid parents are incredibly intelligent and know every danger.  Often as parents, we feel we have to fix everything that could ever possibly happen to our children.    But many dangers just are not that relevant to you and your children.

I’m Christie, mom of four, a ten-year-old girl and triplet seven-years-olds.  I wanted to become Super Mom, who could fix everything for my kids.  In the process, I unwittingly because a paranoid parent, on the look-out and prepared for every possibly danger.  Worrying about every danger is paranoid—not everything is out to get your children.

I’d never taken time to contemplate the idea that there were widely publicized dangers that weren’t remotely likely to happen to my children.  Instead of turning to the media and filing away every news story as a possible threat, or assuming TV and movie dramas represented reality o dangers, I started researching and found most of my top fears and the top fears of most parents were the ones that were the least likely to happen.

Most parents, myself included, worry about all the wrong things, worry too much, and can easily make our kids safe with a few easy fixes (and I don’t mean more child-proofing, detoxing our houses, avoiding public places or teaching stranger danger.)

A quick dose of the facts about childhood dangers, problems and child safety can turn stressed, nagging parents into calm, reassured parents producing resilient children who can control their world, not feel overwhelmed by it.

My book Paranoid Parents Guide comes out in September from HCI, the publishers who have brought you great books like the Chicken Soup for the Soul series.  I hope my book can help parents get their parenting common sense back.

Here, I hope this can become a place for parents to air their worst fears and get answers.  Here you can get the lowdown on real dangers, correct “paranoias” and stop  hours, if not years of worrying.