Tips to Help Children Help Themselves

Over-parenting can be harmful for children at times, states a latest study.

The U.K. researchers conducted a meta-analysis of 70 studies of over 200,000 children. "Parents who try too hard to buffer their children from harm can actually hurt them," Dietre Wolke, Ph.D, Professor of Developmental Psychology at The University of Warwick Medical School in the UK, and lead author of the study, reports Huffington Post.

He explained that the aim of parenting is to make children competent, self-regulating and effective people. "Children need to deal with various forms of stress in mild doses -- like an inoculation that helps the body to fight a real infection by having built antibodies. Similarly, children do need to experience some conflict to learn how to deal with larger problems, such as bullying."

In another interview to everydayhealth.com, Dr Wolke  said that children need to develop coping strategies to deal with the outside world, which an overprotective parent hampers. This includes bullying.

The doctor advises that the best way to deal with bullying is to communicate with the children and be understanding but not take over solve the problem.

Lay down certain ground rules, he says, at home between siblings so that they know what works and what is not acceptable

Writer Time Elmore gives a few tips in the Huffington Post that can make your child help himself when in need.  Tim Elmore says that teaching children how to negotiate can solve half of their problems. "I've spent years talking to my son, Jonathan, about negotiating conflict with difficult peers when they disagreed or with teachers when an assignment seemed impossible."

Another factor which will help children to help themselves is emotional intelligence. When parents help children build emotional intelligence they prepare them to be more resilient, socially aware and manage their emotions, he says.