Helicopter parent

A helicopter parent (also called a cosseting parent or simply a cosseter) is a parent who pays extremely close attention to a child's or children's experiences and problems, particularly at educational institutions. Helicopter parents are so named because, like helicopters, they hover overhead, overseeing their child's life.

Origins

The metaphor appeared as early as 1969 in the bestselling book Between Parent & Teenager by Dr. Haim Ginott, which mentions a teen who complains: "Mother hovers over me like a helicopter..."[1]

Foster Cline and Jim Fay coined "helicopter parent" in 1990.[2] The term "helicopter parent" gained wide currency when American college administrators began using it in the early 2000s as the Millennial Generation began reaching college age. Their baby-boomer parents earned notoriety for practices such as calling their children each morning to wake them up for class and complaining to their professors about grades the children had received.[3][4] Summer camp officials have also reported similar behavior from these parents.[5]

As this cohort entered the workforce, Human Resource officials reported helicopter parents showing up in the workplace or phoning managers to advocate on their adult child's behalf or to negotiate salaries for their adult children.[6]

Generational demographer Neil Howe describes helicopter parenting as the parenting style of Baby Boomer parents of Millennial children. Howe describes the helicopter parenting of baby-boomers as a distinct parenting style from Generation X parents. He describes the later as “stealth-fighter parents” due to a tendency of Gen X parents to let minor issues go, while striking without warning and vigorously in the event of serious issues. Howe contrasts this to the sustained participation of Boomer parents of Millennials in the school setting, describing these parents as "sometimes helpful, sometimes annoying, yet always hovering over their children and making noise." Howe describes baby boomers as incredibly close to their children, saying that in his opinion, this is a good thing.[7][8]

Helicopter parents attempt to "ensure their children are on a path to success by paving it for them." The rise of helicopter parenting coincided with two social shifts. The first was the comparatively booming economy of the 1990s, with low unemployment and higher disposable income. The second was the public perception of increased child endangerment, a perception which free-range parenting advocate Lenore Skenazy described as "rooted in paranoia".[9]

Literature

Madeline Levine has written on helicopter parenting. Judith Warner recounts Levine's descriptions of parents who are physically "hyper-present" but psychologically absent.[10] Katie Roiphe, commenting on Levine's work in Slate elaborates on myths about helicopter parenting: "[I]t is about too much presence, but it's also about the wrong kind of presence. In fact, it can be reasonably read by children as absence, as not caring about what is really going on with them ... As Levine points out, it is the confusion of overinvolvement with stability." Similarly, she reminds readers that helicopter parenting is not the product of "bad or pathetic people with deranged values ... It is not necessarily a sign of parents who are ridiculous or unhappy or nastily controlling. It can be a product of good intentions gone awry, the play of culture on natural parental fears."[11]

Effects

University of Georgia professor Richard Mullendore described the rise of the cell phone as a contributing factor for helicopter parenting — having called cell phones "the world's longest umbilical cord".[4][12] Some parents, for their part, point to rising college tuition costs, saying they are just protecting their investment or acting like any other consumer.[13]

Intergenerational research published in "The Gerontologist" observed that educators and popular media lament helicopter parents who hover over their grown children, but reported "complex economic and social demands make it difficult for the Baby Boomers’ children to gain a foothold in adulthood."[14]

Dr. Clare Ashton-James, in a cross-national survey of parents, concluded that "helicopter parents" reported higher levels of happiness.[15]

Some studies have shown that overprotective, overbearing or over-controlling parents can cause long-term mental health problems for their offspring. The description of these mental health problems may possibly be life-long and its impact comparable in scale to individuals who have suffered bereavement, according to the University College London. According to the Medical Research Council "psychological control can limit a child’s independence and leave them less able to regulate their own behaviour".[16]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Dr. Haim Ginott (1969), Between Parent and Teenager, p. 18, New York, NY: Scribner. ISBN 0-02-543350-4.
  2. ↑ Cline and Fay. Parenting with Love and Logic: Teaching Children Responsibility. 1990. 23-25. As quoted by Julie Lythcott-Haims in How to Raise an Adult: Break Free of the Overparenting Trap and Prepare Your Kid for Success. 2015. 4.
  3. ↑ Henderson, J. Maureen (7 January 2013). "Why Entitled Millennials And Their Enabling Boomer Parents Just Can't Quit Each Other". Forbes. Retrieved 26 April 2016.
  4. 1 2 Briggs, Sarah; Confessions of a 'Helicopter Parent' (PDF), retrieved May 1, 2006 Archived September 26, 2007, at the Wayback Machine.
  5. ↑ Kelley, Tina (2008-07-26). "Dear Parents: Please Relax, It's Just Camp". The New York Times (The New York Times Company). Retrieved 2008-07-28.
  6. ↑ Ludden, Jennifer (6 February 2012). "Helicopter Parents Hover In The Workplace". NPR. Retrieved 26 April 2016.
  7. ↑ Howe, Neil. "Meet Mr. and Mrs. Gen X: A New Parent Generation". AASA - The School Superintendents Association. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
  8. ↑ Ludden, Jennifer (6 February 2012). "Helicopter Parents Hover In The Workplace". NPR. Retrieved 26 April 2016.
  9. ↑ Kendzior, Sarah (12 November 2014). "Only Baby Boomers Could Afford to Be Helicopter Parents". Yahoo Finance. Retrieved 26 April 2016.
  10. ↑ Warner, Judith (July 27, 2012). "How to Raise a Child". The New York Times Book Review. Retrieved July 31, 2012.
  11. ↑ Roiphe, Katie (July 31, 2012). "The Seven Myths of Helicopter Parenting". Slate. Retrieved August 1, 2012.
  12. ↑ "Mullendore: Cell phone is umbilical cord for helicopter parents". The University of Georgia - College of Education. Retrieved 20 April 2016.
  13. ↑ Alsop, Ron (2008). The Trophy Kids Grow Up: How the Millennial Generation is Shaking Up The Workplace. Jossey-Bass. ISBN 978-0-470-22954-5.
  14. ↑ Fingerman, Karen (April 2012). "The Baby Boomers’ Intergenerational Relationships". The Gerontologist. Retrieved 26 April 2016.
  15. ↑ "'Helicopter parents' have more meaningful lives, study finds". Telegraph. Retrieved 2013-11-06.
  16. ↑ http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/overly-controlling-parents-cause-their-children-lifelong-psychological-damage-says-study-10485172.html

External links

Look up helicopter parent in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
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