HELICOPTER PARENTING
Written by Captain Mary on Thursday, August 14, 2008I was talking to one of my customers yesterday and again I came across a term that I was unfamiliar with, "Helicopter parenting". It seems self explanatory, as a helicopter hovers, so do theses parents. My customers were very concerned for their grandson, who apparently has been hovered over all his life and now he is off to college. He recently got his drivers license and can't really find his own home, but he is going to drive all the way to North Carolina where his college is located, "not to worry" my friends told me, "his parents are going to follow him all the way there". The concern of the grandparents is what this kid is going to do now. He has grown up to be a man and his parents can't possibly stay with him in college, yet he hasn't learned the basics yet. I guess this young man is going to have to learn quickly without Mom and Dad at his side, or should I say hovering above. I wonder if his parents realize that not letting a kid make his own mistakes, he also doesn't learn his own lessons in being in the real world. His parents have been running interference for him and now he is moving head-on into traffic. Good luck young man.
I found a quiz online to help determine if you could be a helicopter parent, Helicopter Parent Quiz, interesting to see where the line is drawn by the college admission board. Sometimes I feel like I have been living in a sea shell somewhere, I just don't know all the terms or should I say tags that are placed on people and how they appear to the rest of the world. I wonder what my tag would be? Lunatic, dirty old lady, potty mouth, I guess there are so many descriptors we could all fall under.
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2 comments: Responses to “ HELICOPTER PARENTING ”
By Anonymous on August 14, 2008 at 9:14 AM
Stay the Course: Your level of involvement seems to indicate a good balance between your child's responsibilities and decisions, and your advice and guidance.
Well lookie there. When mine get in high school, I am going to be a good parent. Heh.
I know kids who were hovered over. They can't think for themselves and wound up in heaps of trouble waiting for mommy and daddy to bail them out. Not a good thing in my book. I am up my kids asses but I make them be accountable for their actions.
PS - I have actually used the term Helicopter parent before.
By Anonymous on August 15, 2008 at 7:58 AM
Took the quiz. I'm pretty much the antithesis to the helicopter parent.
It's probably because I was a latchkey kid myself.