The Child Minder

What utter drivel. And irresponsible to boot.

I hope, Lauren, you are not a child protection professional (still less a so-called 'expert') as you seem to be devastatingly unaware of the concept of educating children about 'stranger danger'.
How else do you help a young child understand the potential hazard in wandering off alone, and do you remember of have you ever seen the 'Charley the Cat' educational ads from the 70s/80s? You know, the ones where the little boy nearly goes off with a strange man, until the cat warns him that this is an unwise thing to do.

I'm all but speechless at your dunderheadedness and your refusal to credit children with even a small modicum of robustness. How facile to suggest that this kind of education can leave a child permanently damaged - give them some credit to be able to assimilate information and bounce back. Just because someone is a child, it does not mean they are an idiot.

Thank you for your comments Melinda, but I feel you have both misunderstood and misrepresented my message in your response.

I am not for a minute advocating that parents should not educate their children about stranger danger, but simply that they should do so in a way that is proportionate to risk and not based on media-fuelled hysteria.

I do remember Charley the Cat. It got the message home about stranger danger effectively without leaving children living their lives in fear.

That is a far cry from warning a child they could be snatched at any time like the 'little girl on the telly'. I remain convinced that that form of 'education' is likely to do more harm than good.

Thanks for the response Lauren. To respond (again!)I understand you well enough.
I think the little girl in your example gave a natural response which was to cry when she heard her mother's warning - but can you say she was really so distressed - how long did the tears last? How inconsolable was the child? I'm guessing about 45 seconds then forgotten - children are resilient and contrary after all. Also, for a little girl of '...about four years old' tears are a natural response to many things, including the inconsequential things like not being allowed any sweets - do horrible, traumatic childhood events such as being served vegetables that one doesn't like constitute a spiral into service user-hood? I doubt it. I do understand your point that too much 'doom and gloom' in a parent's message can cause damage and I agree that some parents are way too paranoid which their children absorb like sponges. The point I was trying (not very well it seems) to make is that to imply that the little girl in your example is at risk of mental illness as a direct result of the experience is stretching the bounds of credibility. I just don't believe that a few tears in an instance such as yours can lead to mental illness in young people. I think much more likely contributing factors are our two-tier education system, youth disaffection and lack of family support leading to gang membership, the preposterous price of housing etc.

Anyway - horses for courses and all that. I am expecting my first baby in March, and I will probably be like the mother in your example - one who will teach her children the lessons necessary to survive, and support them through their experiences. I would hope that I would not be held up as an example of paranoid parenthood as a result.

I don't think Lauren was suggesting that a telling-off by a parent could lead to mental health problems. But the cumulative effect of so many media stories about our dangerous world is having an impact on children's mental health.

Children of all ages have been absorbing the daily reports about Madeleine McCann and, I'm sure, are frightened by them. For a parent to compound that fear (surely it's really their own fear?)is too much.

Of course there are dangers in the world and any responsible parent will do their best to make their child aware of them - without scaring the living daylights out of them in the process.

But, as Lauren said, it's about being proportionate. The fact is many more children are developing mental health problems, such as depression and anxiety. It's no accident that the rise is happening at the same time as many children are kept indoors, bribed with computer games and DVDs, because their parents are too afraid to let them out.