I am not a regular reader of The Philly Post, but this particular post which I will share caught my eye. In essence it is on continued helicopter parenting. The term refers to parents who so manage their kids lives they are literally like hovering helicopters. They parent to such a degree that they literally strive to solve every issue or problem a kid might encounter – even fairly innocuous and regular things we all dealt with growing up.
These parents are creating legions of future mammoni except male and female. Kids unable to truly cope on their own and problem solve and reason effectively.
I have heard stories for years and seen parents that if I was their kid they would have driven me cuckoo because they so did everything. The problem is these kids don’t know anything different, so they have never learned how to reason out issues in some cases, or problem solve. I think although done out of love, it does kids a disservice. Some kids rely on it so they can work their parents – I have seen that too.
Any problems at school, parents wade in.
Any social problems outside school, parents wade in.
They go to college, parents still wade in.
The past couple of years in particular I have heard stories of friends in human resource jobs and who just work for companies where parents have weighed in with their now adult children – and it is not like their golf buddy or their friend from The Junior League owns the company.
Granted, there are situations where any parent should weigh in, but as hard as it is, we were all kids once, and there is some truth that kids will not learn some stuff unless they experience it. And then after a point they need to learn to be responsible and accountable for their actions. And face it, the kids want to be.
The helicoptering I see a lot of has to do with kids not actually doing their own homework, or if a teacher suggests a child might say behave better in school, the parent go all postal on a school and a teacher. (Remember the infamous story a few short years ago about the teacher at Baldwin?)
The author here mentions a book with an absurd premise called The Case Against Homework. According to these authors what is wrong with kids today is homework. Homework causes obesity and probably cancer too according to them. Who knew? (My eyes are rolling on THAT one.)
Anyway, vroom, vroom. Read this: