Re: Why are parents OVERprotective?

Why are the second kind of parents so much more common than the first?

They are not necessarily more common, but we have that perception for several reasons:

First, there is a genetic component, and children are more likely than not to be similar to their parents in this regard, which means that in most cases there is not a mismatch.

Second, of cases where there are clashes, we hear more about the overprotective parents because the reckless daughters are more likely to make a row about it than the shy daughters.

Third, there is a great deal of hypocrisy, especially as many people become more risk averse as they age - so the same person who was wild when they were twenty doesn't want their daughter to be wild when she is twenty.

Fourth, due to the facts of sex, recklessness is a much better evolutionary strategy for men than for women. One reckless man can impregnate many women, but a woman has much greater reproductive limits than a man. She can only have a limited number of children during her childbearing years, and shyness and carefulness will not much affect her likelihood of getting pregnant while increasing the chance of survival of her offspring.

However, in traditional societies with arranged marriages this was no doubt a more common conflict, though if you ever saw the British comedy "Ab Fab" you will recall that such conflicts are not unheard of in the modern West.