{"id":1534,"date":"2009-07-30T13:45:00","date_gmt":"2009-07-30T13:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/79.170.44.80\/livingwithkids.co.uk\/are-you-a-cotton-wool-mum\/"},"modified":"2013-06-24T13:14:23","modified_gmt":"2013-06-24T13:14:23","slug":"are-you-a-cotton-wool-mum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/are-you-a-cotton-wool-mum\/","title":{"rendered":"Are you a Cotton Wool mum?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>  As your kids start to&nbsp;get bigger, one of the challenges you face as a parent is how much freedom to give them. Do you let them walk to school\/the shops on their own, for example, or do you insist on trailing behind them everywhere they go? And of course the&nbsp;summer holidays pose their own set of freedom issues, as your children may want to start exploring their environment&nbsp;with their friends.   <\/p>\n<p>  I&#39;m definitely a Cotton Wool mum &#8211;&nbsp;although I do recognise you have to give some freedom if your children are to learn independence. But other mums are much more relaxed&nbsp;&#8211; I often see&nbsp;kids as young as five playing on the green near our&nbsp;home with their older brothers and sisters, not much older than 12, and sometimes until dusk. It&#39;s not something I&#39;d feel comfortable with.   <\/p>\n<p>  I&#39;d love to know your views &#8211; do leave your comments below. And for tips on how to keep your kids safe, both inside and outside the home, visit <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kidscape.org.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\">Kidscape<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.childalert.co.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\">Child Alert<\/a>.   <\/p>\n<p> written by Liz Jarvis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As your kids start to&nbsp;get bigger, one of the challenges you face as a parent is how much freedom to give them. Do you let them walk to school\/the shops on their own, for example, or do you insist on trailing behind them everywhere they go? And of course the&nbsp;summer holidays pose their own set","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3503],"tags":[156,264],"class_list":["post-1534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-great-family-life-tips","category-parenting-advice-from-parents","tag-safety-2","tag-summer-holidays"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\r\n<title>Are you a Cotton Wool mum? - KidStart Magazine<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/are-you-a-cotton-wool-mum\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Are you a Cotton Wool mum? - KidStart Magazine\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As your kids start to&nbsp;get bigger, one of the challenges you face as a parent is how much freedom to give them. 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