Dawn being overprotected

[wiccianslayer]

Okay so someone on another forum said dawn could have got a student job with adult permission and I just wanted to say to this.
Yes she probably could have had a student job but there was no way Buffy would ever allow it i mean we never saw dawn going out unless it was at school or staying with a friend. The staying with a friend thing only happened what twice? IMHO Buffy didn't let dawn have a social life yes in season 5 she was the key and she needed protecting but it's a new season and yes there are very scary things out there but Dawn needs her own life. She can't be wrapped in cotton wool forever i mean she was 15 and she wasn't allowed to have guy in her life? I know it ended up being a vampire and yes she should not have gone parking with someone she just met but we see it again in season 7 Dawn felt she had to lie about going on a date with RJ and what did Buffy do? She freaked out again. As for the outfit Dawn was wearing it wasn't nearly as bad as some of the outfits Buffy wore when she was her age or younger.

Okay rant is over now.
What are your views on this?

 

[Clem Rocks]

I think the problem was Buffy had seen too much, the average parent with a teenage girl has to worry about boys and rapists. Buffy had to worry about boys, rapists, vampires, demons, hellgods, nerds, evil itself etc. It's only natural she'd be overprotective

 

[white avenger]

Also, by the time that Buffy was Dawn's guardian, every one of her relationships had ended badly in one way or another. Maybe she was just trying to shield Little Sis from the same thing.

 

[hazzard]

i agree on some level that dawn was overprotected, but then i think of all the things buffy knows and all the things that happened to her because her mother didn't really know the real truth about what buffy had seen and done, and it becomes clear why buffy was a little sensitive about dawn's care and smothered her a little. she didn't want the same things to happen to dawn that had happened to her. (it would have made dawn less whiny though).