Am I too careful/overprotective?

FBaby

I actually found myself much more focussed on my child because he was in front of me. How many times did I see friend's kids holding their hands and slipping away because their grip was lose? A child who is trying to run away is much more likely to put himself in danger than a child who enjoys the fun of the responsibility of stopping ahead of the kerb and turning around with a great smile to be told 'well done', and then choosing to hold hands when crossing the road. But again, kids are different, even already at that age so what is safe with one won't forcibly be for another and vice versa.

securityguy

Better_Off_1983 wrote: »

29 and 30 month old??? You mean 2.5 year old??? It would be like me calling myself a 360 month old! LOL

I think it would be wise to hold a child's hand especially that age when walking along a busy road. Look at what happened in Wales today!!

And holding their hand would have helped in that case because...?

pigpen

I would hold my 8 year olds hand near a busy road.

I have stood at the edge of the road for 10 minutes until one of mine held my hand to cross. I hate to see children running off they scare me to death... they are so unpredictable.

jollymummy

I think you are being sensible.

We live in a small village with an incredibly busy road through it, lorries and commuters use it as a short cut to get to Huddersfield. The pavement is quite narrow in places up from school, with lots of shrubs and trees overhanging the path. The road is also narrow in places, so vehicles are right next to the pavement edge.

My son is 8 and sensible, but on parts of our route I make him walk on the inside of the pavement and hold his hand.

My poor old hubby has been clipped around the back of the head by bus wing mirrors a couple of times.

It makes me cringe when children, tear up the pavement, pushing and chasing each other, there have been several near misses, when they have tripped and fallen into the road:(

Old_Joe

There is a primary school not far from here.
What appals me is the how frequent mothers open their roadside car doors to let their little darlings out that side, all the more so in some cases when there is more that one child getting out the car at the same time.

Savvy_Sue

I was driving down a quiet road this afternoon, saw a dad with a maybe 5 year old at his side walking towards me, next thing I saw was a lone toddler hurtling down the path from their front door and heading straight for the road with a maybe 12 year old in hot pursuit! She caught him at the same time as I stopped, I would have been stopped before hitting him if he'd carried on into the road, although I suspect he was in pursuit of Dad so would have turned when he reached the pavement ... but it doesn't matter if it's a quiet or a busy road, if a child has no road sense they need to be held / restrained.

And as we've heard, some have road sense early, some never have it!

This_Year

I still automatically grab for my daughter's hand when we're at a busy road junction.

She's almost 18.

Flower08

No I dont think your being over protective, just sensible!

DS is 20 months old and although he doesn't walk everywhere I have him on reins when he does. I never thought I would use reins, but he gets so quickly distracted and breaks free from my grip so quickly sometimes that I think its better to be safe than sorry.
I do teach him to hold hands (and especially when crossing a road!) but I like to have that extra security of having the reins if he does wriggle away.

mummyroysof3

This_Year wrote: »

I still automatically grab for my daughter's hand when we're at a busy road junction.

She's almost 18.

That might be verging on overprotective :rotfl:

I might do same though so maybe I shouldn't comment

meritaten

personally - I don't think so. at that age I would still have them in a pushchair. They can be very impulsive before the age of five and totally unaware of traffic danger.
Even worse is the mum I saw the other day with two kids of about 7 and 5 and a 2/3yr old who were walking behind her while she was engrossed on her mobile - her little one fell and she didn't even notice - a guy waiting for the cashpoint ran after her and she didn't even interrupt her conv on the phone, just picked up a crying kid and walked on! The little one was howling and she took no notice of that!