Are Your Parents Overly Protective, Mine Were!

Hi, all my family, friends, fiends, foes and funky folks!

Dean Benson here, your self proclaimed “Dean of Rock & Roll,” coming to you about a weird topic that’s been rattling around my feeble old brainpan lately. It’s one of those semi-universal experiences that shapes who we are, for better, for worse, or somewhere in between. I want to talk about our parents. Specifically, I want to ask you a question: Were yours overly protective? Mine were, at least my Mom. (She had a miscarriage before I came along, and it took a long time for her to get pregnant with me, so she was afraid of losing me for one reason or another.) I am not blaming her for my world as it is now, and you shouldn’t blame your folks either.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Parents are supposed to be protective. It’s in the job description, right after “provide unconditional love” and just before “embarrass you in front of your teen-aged friends.” But there’s a line, a fuzzy, nebulous boundary between keeping you safe and building a bubble so thick you can’t breathe the real air. That plastic bubble can have some long-lasting effects on your adult life, especially when it comes to taking risks, chasing dreams, and building your very own empire.

I’ve talked to thousands of you through the years — on the radio, on my YouTube channel, and more recently on my TikTok — and I hear these stories all the time. The fear of failure, the need to consult someone else before buying a vehicle, the hesitation to pull the trigger on a…