Safety versus Independence

I decided to write on a subject that has been a central one recently in my dialog with my hubby. We were recently in Turkey for a week and spent most of our days at the pool. I, having a tendency to be "over-protective" of my little doll, would not let her out of my sight and insisted on her staying close all the time. My husband, who is also very cautious with her, felt that my over-awareness of all the potential dangers in our surroundings curbed her independence. It's something I've gone over alot in my mind lately. I totally get where he is coming from. It's easy to see that my being so protective with her has affected her in that she won't do most of the crazy things I see other kids doing, like jumping from freaky high places and climbing up poles and the likes. On the other hand, I feel like teaching a child to be a little cautious is not neccessarily a bad thing. Amongst some of the justifications I have come up with to make myself feel better is the fact that she is at preschool 80% of her days, where I have no doubt that she has alot more freedom to run, jump, climb and be a monkey as much as she wants. I'll also pause at this stage to note that she is extremely active - does not sit still for a second so it's possible that this issue is magnified in her case. Bottom line - finding the right combination can be tricky. I know that logically all kids grow up and in the process, fall, scrape their knees, break some bones (my sister who was a major tomboy broke quite a few....) and get over it. So I just need to keep reminding myself of this fact everytime I feel myself getting a bit too protective of my munchkin. I have no doubt that it won't get easier as she gets older, starts to date, has her heart broken, breaks some hearts, and makes good and bad decisions. It kind of makes me giggle though to think how much my outlook has changed. I used to look at crazy protective parents and think "my god, you have to loosen the grip a little." Now I look at laid back parents and I think "wow - you have to tighten the reigns a bit." So again, I will continue spending my days finding the right combination and most importantly, letting her know that no matter what, she can always come running back to me when she needs to!