08/19/2011
Hi Folks! I am inspired by what a reader named Allison sent me on Facebook. You may be, too. — L
Dear Free-Range Kids: I’m reading Jaycee Dugard’s book “A Stolen Life,“ and in it, she says:
It still scares me, the fact that I can’t protect my daughters from everything. What mother wouldn’t want to protect their child from the dangers of the world? But I have to choose to believe they will both be okay and realize that sometimes when we shelter our children too much, we are really protecting ourselves.
I don’t think anyone would ever question Jaycee for being overprotective of her children, given what she went through for 18 years, so this paragraph just really states so eloquently what many of us feel every day. — Allison
I am also struck by the fact that she frames it as a choice: She could appease her own fear by seriously constricting her daughters’ childhood, or she can live with that uneasy feeling for the sake of letting those girls enjoy what she never got to. Kudos to a brave and generous mom. – L.
