Parents are sometimes reluctant to step in and demand changes in their child's classroom or school out of a fear of coming across as overprotective. Occasionally, this is realistic. There are some parents who complain about every slight altercation and mishap. Frankly, there will always be spontaneous spats, brief exclusions, and occasional outright fights between kids.

Kids disagree, argue, and they fight. Kids will have good days and bad. They will have years where they have many friends and everything is great, and they will have years where they have just a few friends and encounter some social difficulty.

These things are normal and expected in the course of a school career. While it is important to bring major things to the attention of school personnel, small transitory things are not generally a cause for major concern.

If your child is being picked on, excluded, or assaulted on a regular basis, you should not worry about being seen as overprotective — you need to be protective. Your child's safety and well-being should always come before your discomfort. It can be difficult to make waves and upset the applecart, but if you don't, then who will? Who will step in to protect your child when you waste time worrying about being seen as overprotective? There are far worse things to be thought of than overprotective.