Avoiding Children

Being Cast as Predators by Tim Challies is about men being seen primarily as predators and what affect this has on children is along the same lines as what my husband and I have discussed before in our home.

As parents, we have a responsibility to protect our children from harm, while at the same time promoting an atmosphere of stability and security. My neighbor looks after a nine-year old girl amongst others, whose parents have become unbalanced in their parenting outlook. Due to fears of child-snatching and related crimes, they have created an unhealthy view of what it means to protect their child. Her outings have been severely limited to only what they can and will accompany her to and the childcare provider(my neighbor) has been warned repeatedly about not taking their daughter shopping to any malls or stores or other public arenas. Other mothers who are friends with this family have been disallowed to have this young girl accompany their families on special occasions. In discussing this with my neighbor, she sees this current style of parenting as overprotective and unreasonable.
We too are careful with our son, but I also trust in the Providence of God. We act responsibly yet we commit our son and ourselves into His care. The aforementioned parents are not believers and have allowed fear to rule in their hearts and have committed trust to no one but themselves.

That all being said, part of our carefulness is to choose carefully who our son associates with and to whom we ask to provide childcare for us. And my husband is not comfortable with asking young men to fulfill this need. I respect my husband's decision and so far this has not been an issue for us. Our son does not show fear around men of any age simply because in his innocence he is not aware of any potential danger coming from them or any other person. For now, as his parents, it is our job to be vigilant and allow him to experience life without such concerns.