The New Yorker has an interesting article on Helicopter parenting. Here's a paragraph
While Mother was driving the kid nuts with the eight-hundredth iteration of “This Little Piggy,” she should have been letting him play on his own. Marano assembles her own arsenal of neurological research, guaranteed to scare the pants off any hovering parent. As children explore their environment by themselves—making decisions, taking chances, coping with any attendant anxiety or frustration—their neurological equipment becomes increasingly sophisticated, Marano says. “Dendrites sprout. Synapses form.” If, on the other hand, children are protected from such trial-and-error learning, their nervous systems “literally shrink.”
1 comment:
What's amazing to me about "Helicopter parenting" is the looks you get when you aren't one of those parents. I can't tell you how many times I've heard people complain that their child won't listen or stand there and watch their child misbehave w/ no recourse. When they ask if your kids were ever like that and you say "no" I think they tend to not believe you hahaha. Part of the problem is parents don't give enough credit towards what kids actually understand and are capable of. You CAN say 'no' to a 9 month old. If you don't start then, when will they ever learn it? My husband and I have always set the bar high for our expectations of our girls behavior, and it's clear that it has paid off. I think that all of these "Helicopter" parents are what breeds the sense of entitlement that is so prevalent in society today, as well.
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