The first mishna of the second chapter in Yoma relates that originally whichever Kohen from the family assigned to work in the Beis Hamikdash for that week who wanted to take off the ashes from the alter in the early morning would do so. However, when there were a lot of people interested in doing the job they would have a race up the alter ramp, which was around 50 feet long, and the first one to get within around six feet of the platform at the head of the alter would win the job. This practice was ended after an incident in which two kohanim, who were neck-to-neck racing up the ramp, and one pushed the other off and broke his leg. When the Jewish court saw that this system was becoming dangerous, they decreed that there should be a lottery to decide who would get the job each day, just as was used to divvy out the other jobs in the Beis Hamikdash.
The Gemara in Yoma asks: why wasn’t there a lottery to begin with, to avoid any problems? The Gemara answers that because this was a job done at night the kohanim would not think it is such an important job and it would never come to any fighting. Once they saw that it was still popular and, it in fact, led to danger, then they were forced to enact a decree of a lottery to choose who does the job. (Click here for Hebrew text.)
We must therefore say that something which is imminent or at least has a good chance of causing a chilul Hashem, a defiling of Hashem’s sanctity, should be avoided at all costs. But when it gets ambiguous, even if there is a slight chance something bad could result, Hashem does not require actions to be taken at first to avoid a serious problem.
We see from here an important lesson in parenting. Hashem, our Father in Heaven, who should be treated with the utmost respect, only takes precautions against the danger of defiling His holiness when it is more common for something like that to happen. However when the chances are slim, like in the case of the removal of the ashes which was done in the wee early morning before the sun came up, then Hashem gave his children, the Kohanim, the chance to act in a diligent and respectful manner in order to get the job done. Only after something actually went wrong did the Rabbis have to come in and create a lottery in order to avoid any worse danger.
Our parenting also should be in a manner to ensure proper precautions are taken to avoid imminent or common problems. We should also give our children room to do things themselves and to choose to do things the appropriate way in circumstances in which it is highly unlikely that something terribly wrong would happen. And if one does see that something wrong is happening, it is at that point that appropriate precautions should be taken to ensure that it does not get any worse.