Parenting in the Digital Age

I'm going to put my cards on the table and say that I'm definitely not a 'curling parent'. And if ever I was, I'm definitely not anymore...



I have three boys – 8, 5 and 3 – all very independent in their own right with one perhaps being a bit more ‘demanding’ than the others. We don’t and never have ‘child-proofed’ our home. OK, we don’t leave knives lying around the place or the fireguard off the fireplace, but we’ve never used a stair gate, we’ve never put covers on plug sockets and we’ve never bubble wrapped a coffee table.

I say this in jest of course and as a parent, I protect my kids as best I can but there are always going to be times and situations when I can’t protect them and I accept that. All I can do is equip them the best I can, so that they can protect themselves the best they can.

So what, you might ask, is a ‘curling parent’? Danish psychologist Bent Hougaard coined the term "Curling Parents" to refer to those parents who try to sweep away all obstacles in their offspring's path so that their child can go through life without the slightest bump. They continually make sure that nothing is interfering with or negatively affecting their child.

It’s a somewhat regimented and directed parenting style with the goal of protecting the physical and mental well-being of the child. But what’s wrong with that? Well, the downside is that parents are unconsciously at risk of stifling the child. What they are doing is potentially curtailing their children’s chance of developing essential life skills and feelings of personal responsibility and achievement.

Source rte.ie