The fact is inspite of all parenting measures each one of us has had encounters as a child, which when looking back might have done us great harm if we were not just plain lucky enough to have supportive parents

As parents ourselves this gets us into the cycle of being protective around our own children and it is definitely needed to minimize the encounters and be there to safely catch them when they fall

A bird pushes its fledgling off a ledge to make it fly but also hurries to take it under its wings when it senses a predator about. Guess this is basically the dilemma of every parent (every child that becomes the parent)