Mother hen

As a mum (Happy mother’s day ladies) I am protective. I instinctively want to protect my kids from things that can harm them. Some of these things are semi controllable, like bad food, swearing (for the time being at least), the shitheads on our roads and even some home accidents. But what about the things I can do nothing about? And what about those parents not protecting their own kids from some of these things?

As I walked out of the shopping centre yesterday, I saw a couple of women standing around smoking. Whatever. No newsflash moment. But then saw a little girl aged around two or three standing in the morning’s frost looking up at her mum (I suppose) and her friend sucking on this cigarette while she had to stand around waiting for them. Bored, freezing, being influenced. Granted they were outside...but can’t that cigarette wait until the girl is home in a warm place with the smoke not being passively inhaled or even exposed to her? Such a bad role model for that little girl, it made me literally shake my head. And I realised I was doing this with a look of disgust when my eyes met the mothers and she was taken aback by my outright disgust. Woops. As I walked away I thought I should practice my subtle face a little more. But then I thought hell no and I turned back for another look. And then one more as I drove past in the safety of my car. Heh, heh.

I thought of my daughters.

To this day they haven’t even asked about smoking as I try to not let them see adults doing it. Not yet. I am not a fool who thinks non-exposure to things is the best protection but I do think some things should be guided by age appropriateness. This leads me onto my other issue. Social networking sites like FB. When used properly, I think they are great tools for spreading news, sharing photos, having a laugh with friends - my friends, and some of my friends’ friends. But what about the kids?

Most kids have their own profiles set up these days...they are a little more ‘with it’ than me who only started using FB recently. It also makes sense that they friend their parents. Great! Parents can see what their kids are posting. I think this is known as stalking but too bad, I’m the parent and you’re not. But what about kids who are then exposed to their parents/brothers/sisters/cousins friends comments who don’t know or don’t care that some of their friends have younger siblings as friends?

We often complain about this generation of kids being so different from our childhoods but it’s up to us to do what we do best; love and protect our kids, allow them the freedom that innocence brings, let them be kids and treat them as though they will get a chance at being adults ...when they are one.