Children need a lot more time without adults

Parents should not over-protect their children
Many parents would like to keep their child safe throughout the day to make sure nothing happens. However, this is not always good for the child's development - instead, it is important that it also spend time without adults. The expert Ulric Ritzer-Sachs refers to this in an interview with the news agency "dpa". Thus, children are best protected if their self-confidence is strengthened.
Children also need free space
"Be careful", "Hold on tight", "Please stay close so that I can see you": Phrases like these are familiar to many parents when it comes to protecting their children. Some mothers and fathers would like to keep their children in focus all day long in order to avert all possible dangers in time. That children need a lot of protection and safety is undisputed. But parents must make sure that they do not over-protect them - because there must also be free space in which children can gain their own experience.

Children also have to be without adults. Picture: highwaystarz - fotolia

Strong self-esteem is the best protection
According to Ulric Ritzer-Sachs, constant attention is in any case virtually impossible anyway from the online consultation of the Federal Conference for Educational Counseling and is not good for the child at all. Rather, parents should show the son or daughter how and where to get help in sensitive situations. In addition, fathers and mothers should take care to strengthen the self-confidence of their child - because this is the best protected. Of course there are dangers, but instead of scare the child, he should instead be taught the "tools" to deal with them accordingly. "Parents can already say that there are naturally stupid adults and that the child should not go along with strangers," explains Ritzer-Sachs.

Looking for help is important
"Children absolutely need adult-free situations," emphasizes Ritzer-Sachs. Sometimes even without mom and dad to do something, is best practiced gradually by the child, for example. staying alone on the playground for a short time or paying at the supermarket. This creates self-confidence and a sense of security. In preparation for the first "own steps", the expert was after a quiet conversation good in which questions such as "what would you do if you are afraid?" Or "What do you do when your friend hurts?" Are discussed without the offspring being scared.

Instead, it should be carefully stated that the child should seek help when, for example, alone on the street feels uncomfortable. "For example, that it goes to a store and asks someone for help or rings at the neighbors," advises the expert. It is important, above all, that parents give their child the secure feeling that they can get help from adults almost everywhere. It just has to learn to look for them too. "Trust is important. Children have to learn that they can trust others, "says Ritzer-Sachs. (No)