Finding a balance between keeping kids safe and overprotectiveness

During a trip to Alaska this summer, I became paranoid of bears.

Part of it had to do with an incident last summer involving a 15-year-old cyclist who was mauled by a bear during a bike race . It also didn’t help to wake up one morning and find a black bear right outside my window – less than 12 hours after going for a run by myself on a nearby trail just south of Anchorage.

My family loves to hike, camp and spend time in the wilderness. There is no other place we’d rather be than the outdoors. But bear mauling stories and other close encounters have made me worry more than usual.

That’s what led me to read every word of Rich Landers’ recent column, “ Her son downed by cougar, mother uses weapon at hand .” Earlier this month, a 5-year-old boy from Canada was attacked by a cougar while he and his family were hiking in the Colville National Forest. The boy survived because his mom fought off the cougar.

The boy is recovering, but I wonder about his mom. It’s amazing how that instinct to protect our children compel mothers to become superheroes – this mom was able to use all her strength and courage to pummel a cougar with a stainless steel bottle. I wonder, though, if she will now think twice each time she takes her child out in the woods. I wonder if her desire to share a love of the outdoors with her child will now be tempered by a gnawing fear that something terrible could happen again.

There are all kinds of threats out there in the world and as parents, we have no choice but to outweigh the potential risks with the rewards. This applies not just to hiking in bear or cougar country or traveling overseas for vacation, but also during everyday situations such as letting our kids ride their bikes to school or talking to strangers in public places.

“With freedom comes responsibility and with responsibility comes a sense of accomplishment and true self-worth,” wrote Lenore Skenazy, a newspaper columnist and author of “Free-Range Kids: Giving Our Children the Freedom We Had Without Going Nuts with Worry.”

I’m still a little wary of wildlife encounters, but my fear isn’t going to stop me from taking my kids out in the woods. However, I do plan on taking Rich Landers’ advice: “Kids should be kept close and between adults as much as possible. Cougars and wolves in particular are known to key in on the smallest and most vulnerable prey in a flock, and that means children.”

How about you? How do you make sure your child is safe without becoming an overprotective parent?