Are Nurses Overprotective?

[flowerchild]

Noticed that most of the nurses responding to the thread about

child abductions state that they never let thier kids play outside alone, etc..... I know that my poor kids hear from me all the time....Don't do that, you might fall and crack your head. Don't do this, you might break your arm. Don't eat that, it's not good for you. Don't talk to strangers they might steal you and hurt you. This has resulted in my teen having a lack of the ol' I'm a teen and nothing bad can happen to me. He still takes some risks but not without thinking of the consequences first. I hear him say no, d/t fear of possible injury. Is this a good thing??? Most young adults fear little. They think nothing bad can happen to them, and that is normal for teens. So now I think my kids are not like all the other kids, does this mean he's not normal. Is he missing a normal part of psycho development? I don't know.

I have seen too much, fear something could happen to ones that I love, that I see at work. Disease and illness slap us in the face every day and it is our reality. I've tried not to drill my little ones so much..but, recently heard one of them telling the other not to do that b/c they could end up hurt. They wash thier hands, every time they go to the bathroom, and everytime they eat. It's almost compulsive to watch...but that is what I taught them. I don't see to many of thier friends even concerned with handwashing and I doubt they even have a clue to what germs are. I feed my family a healthy and nutritious diet to decrease risks of future disease. I see what the other kids bring when I go to have lunch with the young ones. The content of the lunches leaves much to be desired. So, I wonder, is it just b/c I'm a nurse??? Is it too much to put all those thoughts in my kids heads? Should we just eat like everyone else? Are nurses overly protective of the ones they love?

[Love-A-Nurse]

i was cautious before i became a nurse.

[JailRN]

Of course we're more protective. We're the ones who see a headache which turns out to be a brain tumor, a fall off a skateboard and the kid ends up dead., etc. It's only natural. When I did AIDS nursing, one of my patients told my then 9 year old, 'Ya know, I knew all about safe sex, but I looked at somebody and thought 'oh they look so clean" Turns out one of them wasn't and now I've got AIDS and I'm gonna die. Ya know there's no piece of a$$ worth dying for" I was speechless, but now at 19 , the kid remembers that. Jason died about 6 months later.

I teach them to wash their hands, not ride without helmets, not drive without seatbelts, not to use drugs, not to drink and drive. not to have sex without condoms,etc. I know they hear me. What they do when my back is turned, who knows?? They are learning that every action has a reaction, and a consequence. So. far, when I get reports from the local PD, they are obeying the speed limit, wearing seat belts and don't have the CD blasting. (and my PD knows my kids and the older one's car, and they DO watch them and report back)

I guess it's the nature of hte beast.

[psychomachia]

OVERprotective? No. I think the rest of the world is UNDERprotective.

[bagladyrn, RN]

I always felt all these worries with my son, but spent a lot of time biting my tongue and allowing him to take some risks. Some things, i.e. talking to strangers when he was little, seatbelts, no drinking were were nonnegotiable, but on the other hand I allowed things like skiing, rock climbing and rapelling, and going off camping in the backcountry as a teen.

As a result, he seemed more inclined to take safety precautions himself, and let me know what he was doing when he did these things.