Helicopter Parenting, “When, whatever the reason, a parent steps in and does for their teenager what they could and probably should, do for themselves” is the feature article in the new issue of Your Teen Magazine. Helicopter parenting takes many forms. It may be writing a paper for your teen, interfering in social situations (making sure your child is invited to a party), calling the school to make sure their teenager gets the better teacher or even calling college admissions offices to fight for acceptance.
At times, parents are successful – their child does get the better teacher, grade or party invite. As a parent who only wants the best for my family, I must admit it’s hard see this happen. But I also know that this behavior by parents doesn’t allow you to develop the problem solving skills you need to become independent.
So, what is your experience with “helicopter parenting”, either for yourself or a friend and what was the end result?
I HATE HELICOPTER PARENTING!!!
Seriously, just reading the description makes me shiver. Whenever my friend’s parents stepped into their lives all I could do was roll my eyes and then make judgements about my friend and his/her parents. I definitely had help throughout school from my parents and friends. But I never let them just do my projects or fight my battles. And I laugh at the idea of my parents trying to get me invited to a party. It was a struggle to just sneak out to go to a party! They would never pressure me or my friends to invite me anywhere. Letting your parents do everything for you will get you no where in life.
I had a friend in high school who’s parents were constantly concerned with their daughter’s reputation in high school. They would try their hardest to make her seem popular and even made her hangout with certain kids. It was just awkward and most people just felt bad for her. Helicopter parenting is bad.
DON’T DO IT!
I’m sure this is not politically correct…..but I’d rather see my kids fail than step in as a “helicopter parent”.
If I step in and help them through all of their struggles in life how are they going to learn how to manage things themselves? Even more, how are they going to learn how to accept a defeat, deal with it and move on?
A helicopter parent does more harm than good. They teach the child that life is fair (RIDICULOUS!!!!). And they deprivs them of the essential life training on how to deal with adversity and overcome disappointment.
Helicopter parenting does more harm than good. If parents are doing everything they can to help their kid, the child will never learn what it means to be faced with challenges or to work hard in order to succeed. When the child moves out and no longer has their parents to do everything for them, the child will not be prepared to take tasks on for themselves. Helicopter parenting only helps the kid out temporarily. Parents should realize that by doing things for their kids they prevent the child from learning how to work hard and succeed in the future. In the long run, helicopter parenting does more harm than good.
Helicopter parenting with schoolwork and social situations does not help their child at all. If I knew about a kid who had his or her parents do their work for them, I would think to myself that I could never trust that person. To me it would reflect on their lack of responsibility. They would have no honest evidence to show for it. As for trying to push for a kid to be accepted by a certain group of kids or invited to a party, that is ridiculous. That kid can’t be truly happy spending time with kids he or she doesn’t naturally want to be with.
I wouldn’t really classify the college issue under helicopter parenting, because I never heard of parents succeeding in arguing their way to a college acceptance. It’s more of a frustration with the growing difficulty in getting into colleges. The college process can be unfair.
Parents have a right to do what they think is fair for the good of their child. But there has to be a limit. At some point, kids need to become adults and take some hard routes in life.
