Evaluation of Helicopter Parenting Style

Helicopter Parenting

Parents have a unique role to play in children’s life. The capacity to show encouragement, guide how children respond to activities fosters behavior, which accumulates to interest in school and a positive attitude as a form of parental care. As such, parent’s engagement in children’s life proves effective in guiding better decisions and conscious children to the socio-economic issues. However, the effectiveness of parental care depends on ways in which the parents allow children to make their observations, learn from the environment, and find ways to deal with their issues for growth, development and emotional stability. Therefore, the paper provides an insight into the ramification of helicopter parenting through analysis of parent’s control to the children up to higher education levels. The intensity, frequency, and intervention of parents to children’s welfare affect their capacity to grow and make informed choices for adequate work-life balance and assumption of positive roles in society. 

Helicopter Parenting

According to Vinson (428), helicopter parenting refers to a parent’s involvement in children through hovering since one is born up to graduation. For example, in the modern world, with the increased embrace of technology, the parent chooses to involve themselves with unborn babies through seeking extra attention and information regarding the baby’s optimal growth. Such an assertion continues throughout the growth of the child. In that, once a child is born, parents’ instinct of overprotective takes preeminence and becomes the only meaningful and constant topic. In a sense, a parent becomes the armour for the child, develops, and creates layers of overprotective notion to either monitor the child on a 24-hour basis or keep them away from the environment they are supposed to learn from. For most parents, it is about going to the extent of using GPS on their children while away, installing cameras, putting helmets on the children while playing, and even making a schedule of what time a child is likely to get involved in play games. All the activities, though of care, concern, love, and appreciation towards the child, serves as the numerous ways of gaining dominance in the life of the child and diminishing his/her options to the reality of the world.

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Similarly, a look at the past way of life shows that parent’s role in children, reflected a work-life balance, commitment to the children, and a conscious space to facilitate learning from the environments and independency of children. Those are times, where kid’s growth mattered, in the sense that the role of parents included care to learn from mistakes, be their own man/woman, and grow into fine people that the society can depend upon (Vinson 428). But, today’s parenting skills have changed to signified parents whose attention to children exceeds care and ushers control to how children are supposed to grow, who to make friends, when to play, which grade to achieve, and which university to attend. To some extent, if lecturers, school institution or administrations asserts the child as a failure, then the blame is on them, not the children. The hovering attitude demonstrates the behavior of parents to the outside world.

Therefore, the research paper uses the Georgia State University Law Review to demonstrates the ramification of helicopter parenting. Vinson (430) indicates that the role of many universities and higher institutions reflects a perspective of sharing information with parents on children’s progress on ways to improve their performance, as an ideal culture of a positive relationship. However, helicopter parents are becoming a nuisance, given they sue schools when they are disgruntled, in the event, the school fails to meet their perfect experiences to their children. For the parents, the failure of their children through grades or other relevant activities is due to the school’s lack of commitment rather than the conscious level of children to learning. Herein, the children lack the power and the will to make their own decision given they are living in the shadow of their parents. The objective of life choices, the capacity to choose what they have passion for, and the essence of creativity, and critical thinking is lacking.

Factors Causing Helicopter Parenting

Further, the predominant factors for helicopter parenting are fear of children’s safety, demography issues, and the fear of failure as a parent. Other reasons include the role of technology in promoting increased contact by parents to children (Vinson 432). For example, in the US, as economic insecurities rise, the cost related to education keeps growing, and helicopter parenting becomes the norm. Parents want to ensure that their investment in children pays off or least the educational institution for the child, serves as the predictive factor for success. Thus, the idea of a parent seeking constant information and monitoring their children's quality of life.

Impacts of Helicopter Parenting to Children in Higher Education

As demonstrated by Vison (433), helicopter parenting causes both legal and academic issues to children. In that, analysis shows that parent’s involvement with children, foster better results, help curb substance abuse, limit chances of early pregnancy, enables the realization of better grades, and education outcomes. But then, the tenacity to over-involved affects the children’s response to everyday issues. The academic performance may be high, but children lack the free will to live given every environment they are experiencing, forces them to the expectations of their parents. For example, the parenting serves as the mode of scripting children on what is expected, what teachers need from them, the coaches, counselors, and in case they failed, the parent relies on courts to make sure their children achieved their (parents) dreams. Thus, such over-care, too much influence on a child’s life in the world, affects the student’s learning. It fosters stress, causes substance abuse issues, creates the need for suicidal thoughts, and curbs the career of children. For example, most of them are forced to pursue the parent’s dreams, instead of focusing on their passion, to create a peaceful world by experiencing life’s plus and minuses and learning to make rational decisions for quality of life (Vinson 433). A preview supported by Pautler (3), in that, helicopter parenting causes intrusion to child key development, causes havoc with the school authorities and enables inappropriate contact with the school administration. The concept serves as a depressive state to the student and allows self-efficacy in academics (Pautler 7). Thus, the style ruins the student’s life and causes rife in families, schools, and employment sector.

Conclusion

Parental care is essential for children’s growth and assimilation into the world. However, the style itself must give priority to the needs of the children to ensure a positive social change of children and an understanding of the world’s reality. Helicopter parenting is harmful to children from their immediate age to the afterlife, given it denies them the opportunity to learn, make decisions on their own, and experience life’s ups and downs for emotional stability. Helicopter parenting for a college student, causes anxiety attacks, fear to parents, and affects the chances of a positive relationship in a family setting. Parents must observe and ensure that efforts towards the children attribute to the understanding of children’s needs, and intervention resonates from the needful situation for children to have problem-solving skills, and have what it takes to handle the challenges of life for morality and maturity.

References

• Pautler, Lindsey R. "Helicopter Parenting of College Students." 2017, pp. 3-28.
• Vinson, Kathleen. "Hovering too close: The ramifications of helicopter parenting in higher education." Ga. St. UL Rev. 29, 2012, pp. 423-449.