What is it like to be raised by helicopter parents?
The strangest thing of all about helicopter parents is that they never leave their kids go out alone. They are terrified of “stranger danger” but they are definitely not using the same vigilance when their kids are online!
Helicopter parents are really ruining kids’ sense of autonomy and resilience in the long term. This quote says it all:-
“Helicopter parents. Before I started at Pirriwee Public, I thought it was an exaggeration, this thing about parents being overly involved with their kids. I mean, my mum and dad loved me, they were, like, interested in me when I was growing up in the nineties, but they weren’t, like, obsessed with me.” -Liane Moriarty, Big Little Lies
You can watch the video here of Lenore Skenazy who has a great site called Free Range Kids and she defends her position very well in this video and I completely agree with her. She says that society has become obsessed with child protection and some parents are even charged with negligence when their kids are playing unattended in their own backyard!
In a way, overprotective parents are having a knee jerk reaction to hysteria about child safety and protection and that is understandable but this is not the answer to raising resilient and independent kids.
Sooner or later your kids will ask you about guns. You can read my post here
