You may have been surprised when you read this title … “how could loving our children ever be too much?” I hear you ask.
I think all of us would agree that loving our children is a very important part of parenting.
There is no doubt that children who are well-loved have a better head start in life – all the psychological research supports this. ‘Overloving’ occurs when this is taken to an extreme and our relationship with our children become all about them.
What do I mean ‘overloving’?
In simple words, ‘overloving’ means loving too much or in a way that is harmful to our children. It may be over-focusing on their interests, over-providing for their needs or over-involved with their lives.
‘Overloving ‘ can be a trap that us parents can easily slip into as we try to raise our children in today’s world. The ‘soft parenting’ ideas that are so popular and widely endorsed these days may unknowingly draw us into overloving our children.
The dangers in overloving
Let’s think about this a little deeper. There are two dangers in overloving.
The first if that by overloving our children we may teach them to believe that the world is all about them and they start living very ‘me’ focused lives.
The second danger is that as parents by trying too hard to give all we have and provide all our children desire, we may end up dropping with exhaustion ourselves.
In our life program The ‘Strong Love’ Parenting Program, we work on healthy ways to be deeply involved in our children’s lives without allowing them to become ‘me’ focused and without burning out ourselves.
You may also enjoy meeting with other like-minded parents in our online community Building Stronger Families.
The OverlovingTrap – the trap is in loving our children so much that they come to believe that the world is all about them, which often leads to ‘me’ focused children and burnt out parents!
You are invited to join ‘The 10 Secrets of Successful Families’
free online program. Simply click on the button below.
To learn more about the program click here.
