Helicopter Parenting – What Has Childhood Become?
Posted in Take a Deep Breath, Your Family on 20. Nov, 2009
We’ve all heard of “helicopter parents.” Sometimes our definitions vary, but in general they are the parents who go overboard when it comes to everything related to parenting. Of course it starts out innocently enough, because we all want what is best for our kids. However, sometimes it can be taken to an extreme, which ends up doing more harm than good.
I don’t consider myself to be a helicopter parent at all, but sometimes I find myself getting sucked into the mentality that I need to be doing more. More sports, more classes, more pushing my two year old and my four year old to become little geniuses by the time they reaches kindergarten. I see other parents worry over things I don’t think about much, and it occurs to me that perhaps I should be more concerned over the issue of the moment. Because each of us wants to be the best mom to our kids, it’s certainly easy to get drawn in by the concept of doing even more for our kids, all the time, to the extreme.
This article from Time is extremely interesting and insightful. It’s good encouragement for those of us who watch other parents hover over their kids, and even if we are confident in our own approach, sometimes it’s hard not to question whether or not they’re the ones who’ve got it right. After this article, I am more inspired than ever to encourage free play, creativity, and space for my kids. I hope you find this as helpful as I did – it’s a great take on parenting, and what childhood should really be about.
Can These Parents Be Saved? [Time]
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I just finished this article this evening after dinner and was going to call you tomorrow to tell you about it! Glad you saw it too and posted it. It was a great article!