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What is the best way to say "shelter" your children? 'Proteger' or protect, doesn't sound derogatory, which is what is meant by this phrase. 'Sobreproteger' doesn't seem to do it justice either.

jlaverde
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  • What do you mean by that? We *don't generally say* to shelter children. You can provide shelter for someone. But that means to protect from the elements (rain, snow, etc). And why do you say the phrase is derogatory? To lead a sheltered life, also. Could you provide a context or a sentence? Is it something like: to shelter children from online porn? For example? That is figurative. – Lambie Sep 08 '18 at 15:43
  • @Lambie I'm not an English speaker, but while I was preparing my answer I read several sources on the internet that use "shelter" with the meaning that is hinted by this question. – Racso Sep 08 '18 at 16:40
  • To shelter children from [pornography] is merely proteger los niños [de]. There is no idea of "overprotection" in shelter. There just isn't. – Lambie Sep 08 '18 at 16:45
  • @Lambie The way I have heard the usage of this throughout my life is in a derogatory form. It is typically meant to deride parents who don't allow their children to experiment something, that to them is perceived as bad or dangerous. Most parents would take offense to someone telling them that they shelter their children. Sometimes the term is also used by teens to refer to a child that hasn't experienced some activity because of the parents, by calling them sheltered. – jlaverde Nov 02 '18 at 16:57
  • I do not understand why you say that. You can shelter (metaphor) anyone from anything dangerous. You are confusing "sheltered children" which can mean overprotect, with shelter meaning: to protect. She sheltered her husband from her mother's nasty remarks. So, your question: to shelter children is ambiguous. After all, the basic thing: shelter from a storm. – Lambie Nov 02 '18 at 17:07
  • check out shelter children from harm's way, for instance: http://www.easternflorida.edu/community-resources/child-development-centers/parent-resource-library/documents/coping-tragedy-disaster.pdf – Lambie Nov 02 '18 at 17:11

2 Answers2

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Sobreproteger is the term you're looking for.

It's used when you want to say that a parent protects its children too much from the perils of the "real world". It's derogatory, as the parent isn't allowing its children to grow because of the excessive protection. In general, you'd want to avoid to "sobreproteger" your children.

Racso
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  • That would be: to be overprotective. Not shelter. – Lambie Sep 08 '18 at 15:40
  • Within the context of the question, overprotective parents shelter their kids. "to shelter" is used as a term for "to shelter from society". – Racso Sep 08 '18 at 16:38
  • The question does not mention overprotection at all. The OP has not properly posed the question as I pointed out under ti. So, it's really a guessing game. To overprotect is most definitely not "derogatory". Kindly look up that term. Derogatory means a "put-down", a "veiled insult". To call someone a "cur" is derogatory, because it means "dog". – Lambie Sep 08 '18 at 16:39
  • @Lambie that may be true, but it was enough information for me to search for context and answer the question. – Racso Sep 08 '18 at 16:42
  • It would be nice is the OP answered my question. But shelter is not overprotect, it just is not. It's just protect. – Lambie Sep 08 '18 at 16:43
  • "to overprotect is not derogatory" - neither he nor I used "overprotect", you did. He used "shelter" and I used "sobreproteger". 2) Both words (shelter, sobreproteger) have negative connotations. When you say that a parent is "sobreprotector, you're saying that he is doing things wrong.
    • – Racso Sep 08 '18 at 17:00
  • @Rasco "It's derogatory, as the parent isn't allowing its children to grow" is what you said. So, you did say "derogatory". And your answer says "sobreproteger" which means "overprotect" in English. Shelter is not overprotect. Shelter does not have negative connotations. – Lambie Sep 08 '18 at 17:06