Helicopter parents. Do we hate them for their crazy actions or love them for what they’re “trying” to do? When I use to think of helicopter parents, I always thought they were overprotective parents in the sense of wanting to keep their children out of harms way, but an article posted on CNBC stated that a helicopter parent is someone who “excessively monitors” their kids and are overly involved or controlling in a way that’s inappropriate for parents of adults. They included an example of a parent doing their kid’s laundry or speak to their child’s professor about their grades. One of my best friends from high school had a mom that would track her phone and every time she would tell her mom where she was going, she had to stay at the place and was not allowed to go anywhere else. She also had a curfew of 12am and couldn’t argue any later times. In order to get around the rules her mom put in place, she would leave her phone at the destination she told her mom she was going to be and travel elsewhere…PHONE-LESS. I have always thought about how dangerous that could be, traveling without a phone and your mom not knowing where you are, but for her, it was the only way she could have fun the way she wanted to. The good thing about this story is that nothing ever dangerous happened to my friend and she is one of the most independent people I know. So I guess what I am getting at is that I think there are levels to being a helicopter parent. In the article it shares how kids of helicopter parents do worse in school, feel emotionally drained from their studies, and wish they were more self-disciplined. I don’t think there is anything wrong with using technology to your advantage as a parent and taking the safety measures needed to keep your kids safe, but I do think every parent should give their kids room to breathe. As a kid, a part of growing up is making mistakes and its okay. The more parents have their kids in a box and do things for them and have 24 hour surveillance over them, it seems the worse it makes the kid in the long one. I am curious to know that if anyone reading this had helicopter parents and how it would/has affected your parenting style? Would you want to take it easy on your kids because you know how annoying it can be or would you want to take every safety precaution you can?
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