Why did siddharta's father protect him from the outside world?

Answer 1

Siddarth's father King Suddhodana learnt through prophecies that his young son would grow up to be either a great Emperor or a great saint. The king wanted siddarth to be a king and not an ascetic. He exposed the growing boy to all the comforts and kept him isolated away from the vagaries of life like sickness, oldage and death. He did not want his son to experience any of the sufferings of normal human life as he feared that his son may turn away from worldly life and become a sage. So he kept him secluded in a palace with all the materialistic luxuries a man can't even dream of. He thought that the material comforts would make him choose to be a king rather than an ascetic.