03 Nov Have you been told that you are a helicopter parent 🚁
Wanting the best for your child 🧒but don’t want to be stressing them out😬
The term “helicopter parent” was first used in Dr. Haim Ginott’s 1969 book Parents & Teenagers by teens who said their parents would hover over them like a helicopter. 🚁Helicopter parenting refers to “a style of parents who are overly focused on their children” and most often applies to parents who help high school or college-aged students with tasks they’re capable of doing alone (for instance, calling a professor about poor grades, arranging a class schedule, managing exercising habits). But really, helicopter parenting can apply at any age.
In toddlerhood, a helicopter parent might constantly shadow the child, always playing with and directing his behaviour, allowing him zero alone time. 😳In primary school, helicopter parents may ensure a child gets a certain teacher or coach, select the child’s friends and activities, or providing disproportionate help for homework and school projects.
🚁Helicopter parenting can develop because parents have a fear 😳of dire consequences for their children. However, many of the dire consequences that parents are trying to prevent are really great teachers for kids and not actually life-threatening. “Failure” and challenges teach kids new skills, and, most importantly, teach kids that they can handle “failure” and challenges. Many studies have reported the negative impacts of helicopter parenting on children, including decreased confidence and self-esteem, undeveloped coping skills, a sense of entitlement and increased anxiety.😓
Parenting is a very difficult job. We need to keep one eye 👀on our children now and one eye on the adults we are trying to raise. Getting them from here to there involves some suffering, for our kids as well as for us. 🤔In practical terms, this means letting children struggle, allowing them to be disappointed, helping them to work through failure. It means letting your children do the tasks that they’re physically and mentally capable of doing.
Together we can raise a generation of leaders. 💪
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