Parents who overreact, do they just make you shake your head......

Question

Example, a woman saying that she would "rush her child to the ER if she saw him take a small sip from an unattended beer can." Really, rush him to the ER?

How do you respond to parents who overreact to everything?

Answer 1

well, my personal impulse sometimes is to overreact. I am a first time mom and have to fight this a lot because I understand that babies are much more resilient than they look. but still, it's hard not to freak out sometimes lol. but I agree, some parents are ridiculous. My friend flipped out one day when her daughter skinned her knee. kids can pick up on people's vibe big time, so if you treat everything like a big deal, they get scared and tend to blow things out of proportion. I think if she had just picked her up and said "woah, what a spill! you're such a brave girl, let's go get a band aid so you can get back on that bike" or something like that, her daughter wouldn't be screaming and refuse to go back outside.  

Answer 2

there idiots who need to calm down

Answer 3

It does make me shake my head, parents acting their shoe size in difficult situations just make the situation more difficult. And their giving a bad example to their children, Their is a saying 'how people act is their karma, how you react is yours'...very true & that can be applied to parenting situations.

Answer 4

Giggle. Sorry but it is really too amusing for words. And feel bad for them because they are missing out on the fun of parenting by being too uptight.

Answer 5

It's really hard. My parents found out I smoked the occasional cigarette a few days ago and they flipped out. I told them that there are parents out there that deal with kids who smoke heroin, do meth, pop pills, stuff like that. I showed them a tv taping of the show 'intervention' which shows people who's lives have been devastated by drug use to try  to put it in perspective.

It worked really well, actually. Most of the time parents who overreact and simply worried about their kids. They are responsible for their safety, after all.

The other parents who overreact often just blow things out of proportion. Lets say a kid accidentally took 1/2 of an extra teaspoon of cough syrup. The parent looked at the bottle and only saw that they took more than the reccommended dose. It's obviously not going to harm the child, but all the parent sees is 'do not take more then instructed dosage', causing panic.

There's not really a way to respond to them, just set good examples and try to educate them politely on what is actually cause for ER visits

- Sarah

You can't  

Answer 6

I just ignore them and when I get home laugh, it's funny one day I was at the mall with one of my five year old son's friends and his mother, I was talking to his mother while the boys talked, his mother said "Jamal played with a stray dog and it scratched him a bit, I had to clean out the scratch and call the animal controll pronto Jamal could've died" I being an expert on dogs knew she was full of ****, I just nodded my head, when I got home I laughed.

Answer 7

Wow, that lady sounds like a paranoid nut case!  I would probably call the doctor and let them know to makes sure he'd be ok, but there's no need to rush him to the ER.

My son actually ate part of a shedded snake skin (yuck) when he was about 20 months old.  He found it in the yard and had part of it in his mouth before I knew it!  I got it out of his mouth and wiped out his mouth, but I didn't go rushing him to the ER for it.  I called his doctor to make sure he would be ok and they said he'd be fine...and he was.  :)

People who overreact like that will make their kids freak out at everything.  My mom was like that lady you described:  a small cut, she'd flip out.  She flipped out when my son got a scrape on his knee.  She made a HUGE deal out of and it upset him more than the scrape did!  He's gotten plenty worse without me getting that worked up.  You stay calm, your child will too.

-Sarah- I think your parents had good reason to react the way they did.  Smoking cigarettes in general is terrible for your health and I'm betting that you are/where a minor at the time.  I'd flip out (to a degree) too if I found my teenager smoking cigarettes.  They would certainly have an ear full, not yelling but a major converstation and loss of privacy for a good while.

Answer 8

I definitely shake my head, and feel bad for their kids.  I had a grandmother who overreacted to everything, and I had severe anxiety growing up as a result.  She was sure I would choke on everything, so there was very little I was actually allowed to eat - for example peanut butter and jelly sandwiches had to have a thick layer of butter on the peanut butter side, and hot dogs and hard candy were out of the quetion, even when I was 10.  I got so freaked out about choking that when I was 8 I went an entire year without eating solid foods - just nutritional drinks.

Anyway, my sister is an overreactor.  Her 19 month old son got diarrhea the other day and she rushed him to the ER and called me in hysterics.  When I told her she might be overreacting, she proceeded to tell me that I just didn't understand how scary it is o have a sick child - keep in mind that my first daughter spent her whole life in the hospital before she died, and my second daughter has been having issues since she was born (Jaundice, needing surgery for a patent urachas, and even being on antibiotics which gave her - you guessed it - diarrhea).  I also was out with them this summer, and her son *amost* fell down - she caught him before he did, and her husband screeched, ran over and grabbed the kid, hugged him and wouldn't let him go for over 2 minutes.  It led to her son screaming bloody murder because of the overreaction on his parents part, and he didn't even fall down!

*sigh*  Sometimes I think that being that overprotective is just as psychologically damaging as being neglectful.

Answer 9

Wow! That is overreacting! I'm 13 and have 6 brothers and sisters. My mom is really laid back with that stuff. Honestly, a little beer won't hurt him. My brother, Jake (3) got his apple juice mixed up with my dads beer and took a sip of it. Then complained of it tasting gross. My mom just said "No this is daddy's." gave my dad the cup and called it a day. He isn't sick or anything.