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‘My baby wore a crash helmet’

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Image: via Shutterstock

First-time mom Julie Cook is, by her own admittance, so over-protective that she made her baby wear a crash helmet, according to the Daily Mail. The safety precaution, she suggests, was to protect his soft head against sharp corners and pointy things.

Deep-seated issue

On further self-examination, she says that the reasons for her chronic anxiety about her son’s safety may date back to a miscarriage she had before getting pregnant with him, and the resultant fear that she would lose the pregnancy. She admits that her persistent worrying even meant that her son spent way too much time strapped safely into a pram.

Of her house of danger, she says:

 “The edges of tables and drawers looked as sharp as blades. Short, out-of-reach blind cords, belts and bits of string were now strangulation hazards. Anything smaller than a tennis ball was a potential choking hazard. And heaven help any innocent men who smiled at my son in his pram. Potential child abductors, all of them... I began sticking big blobs of Blu-Tack [Prestik] on every sharp corner in our home in case his precious head should make contact with them. No table, dining chair or chest of drawers was safe from my paranoid attention. I bought extra pillows and cushions, dozens of them, and placed them everywhere — against doors, skirting boards and cupboards.”

But what about the kid?

It’s brave of her to admit that she’s overdoing it, but her son had already picked up unwanted comments from people, who asked if he has a head injury, or just suggest that he looked ridiculous. Her friends insisted it would make her son more anxious, too.

Eventually, with encouragement from her husband, she was able to get rid of the helmet and peel off the protective covers from the furniture and, although she battled to get used to it, and hates the bruised knees and grazed elbows, she realizes that those are just normal scrapes a growing child will pick up.

Are you an over-protective parent?
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