Love, marriage, and family have undergone a chronological transformation over the past three decades. How people perceive the three has significantly changed. The world has become competitive, and the college students expelled from school might struggle to get a job and struggle for years to get an affordable apartment. It is for this reason that so many parents find themselves mismanaging their children. As it turns out, the so-called helicopter parents do nothing in favor of their kids. This has become a challenge since a significant number of children with helicopter parents fail. On the other hand, it can trigger anxiety in some children adding to some pile of data insinuating that these parents stunts kids' emotional and cognitive development. This paper seeks to analyze various articles contextualized on helicopter parenting.
7 Signs You Might Be a Helicopter Parent. WebMD, WebMD, 16 June 2016, www.webmd.com/parenting/ss/slideshow-helicopter-parent.
According to the articles, there are about 7 things that parents ought to avoid that can hinder their kids emotional and cognitive development. Parents should allow their children to take control of their lives. The first indicator of helicopter parent is fighting your child's battles. In this case, the daughter comes home crying after an agreement with a friend, but the parent tells her to call the friend's mother to solve the issue. There is a need for the parent to support the kid but let her talk the issue. At the same time, it is essential to teach her how to calm emotions and cope with the friend. Doing your kids their homework is yet another sign of helicopter parent which should be discouraged. The children ought to be subjected to healthy levels of stress while solving the school work to enhance their problem-solving skills. The third sign of a helicopter parent is one who coaches his coaches, shouting advice from stands when they are player or cornering the coach after practice. It is fundamental to allow these sporting activities teach kids on ways of dealing with conflict, work towards their individual goals and handle defeat. When they need help, teach them how to talk to the coach.
If you keep your kids on a short leash, then you are a helicopter parent. This includes driving your teen child to friends place even when on a short walk away and sending check-in messages to college. There is a need to allow the children to be independent and take control of their life. Subsequently, being a maid in your house also affects the child's emotional and cognitive development. Making their beds, cleaning their rooms or doing laundry should stop. According to this author, it is good to make the begin shaping the kid with a smaller task as you build the character over time. Parents need to set their expectation and praise them for any job well done.
Parents should also avoid playing too safe and also allow their kids to fail. They need not be overprotective and enable them to take mental and physical risks. At the same time, enabling them to fail gives them an opportunity in learning from their mistakes. This article is valid and reliable since it provides evaluation criteria which parents can use to understand the aspect of helicopter parent and shape their children to be responsible.
Flanagan, Caitlin. How Helicopter Parenting Can Cause Binge Drinking. The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 3 Aug. 2016, www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/09/how-helicopter-parents-cause-binge-drinking/492722/.
Adolescence and teen drinking is one thing that most parents fear most. The physical danger, development of a detached and secret life causes parents more anxiety hence the need to ensure safety for their children to prevent them escaping into freedom by continuously monitoring them. For this reason, drinking in captivity has become prevalent alternatively. At the same time, drinking is different from drugs as the parents recoil from it in horror. They can accommodate it and practice "social hosting," allowing their children to get hammered in their comfort.
According to the article, good parents think of the dangers of alcohol and that uncontrolled drinking has consequences hence the need to create family cultures that support their belief. Good parents who believe that preventing teenagers from drinking can help college admissions are misguided. Teenagers growing in a success factory (public high school in a fancy zip code or a prestigious private institution) will often be those whose lives involve extremes; extreme athletes, extracurricular pursuits, and drinking. Binge drinking habits with other teens obviously enhance the endeavors. Being helicopter parent increases ridicule from the children in relation to drinking which has become a disappointment. For one thing, students tend to be more in the Get-Real business affairs as compared to the previous generations. Parents do not focus on the moral or emotional imperatives but only highlights on the short term initiatives such as how to recognize signs of alcohol poisoning. This makes children and teens alike to see drinking as a normal activity.
University and college drinking has become a normal scenario, and the majority of parents are not concerned. For this reason, it has become difficult to convince the middle-aged parents that something is not right with the moral values of their kids. The article advocates that college officials need to send a frequent report on the progress of students and discuss possible initiatives that can help student reduce drinking levels. When proper parenting is put into consideration, depression, and anxiety among students can be minimized thereby mitigating heavy drinking.
Lythcott-Haims, Julie. The 4 Cultural Shifts That Led to the Rise of the Helicopter Parent.Business Insider, 31 Jul 2016. http://www.businessinsider.com/the-rise-of-the-helicopterparent-2016-7.
According to Lythcott-Haims, four cultural shifts have led to the recent increase of the helicopter parents across the globe. The first shift occurred after a higher rate in child abduction. For this reason, children and teenagers were not given an opportunity to interact freely as an incessant fear towards strangers was born. The second shift emerged after the idea that students were not doing enough in their schoolwork which led to the publication of an article "A nation at risk" that focused on the derailing performance of American students against other students across the globe. For that reason, policies such as "No child behind and race to the top" were formulated which has to some degree enhanced helicopter parenting. Another shift came on the onset of self-esteem movement an ideology that gained popularity to help kids succeed in life.
The fourth and final cultural shift involved the creation of playdate which emerged as a practical planning tool when mothers were ushered to the workforce in record numbers. With the increasing number of working parents, there was more reliance on child daycare hence little time to play. The parents also found it difficult to monitor the progress of their kids and ultimately mentor them. Parents scheduled play activities with the children and involved themselves in the activities. In the long run, parents started being involved in children play.
In a nutshell, helicopter parenting is very detrimental to children regardless of how loving the parent can be. The helicoptered children are less engaged in classwork activities. This affects their self-esteem and academic performance.
Works cited7 Signs You Might Be a Helicopter Parent. WebMD, WebMD, 16 June 2016, www.webmd.com/parenting/ss/slideshow-helicopter-parent.
Flanagan, Caitlin. How Helicopter Parenting Can Cause Binge Drinking. The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 3 Aug. 2016, www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/09/how-helicopter-parents-cause-binge-drinking/492722/Lythcott-Haims, Julie. The 4 Cultural Shifts That Led to the Rise of the Helicopter Parent.Business Insider, 31 Jul 2016. http://www.businessinsider.com/the-rise-of-the-helicopterparent-2016-7.
Request Removal
If you are the original author of this essay and no longer wish to have it published on the customtermpaperwriting.org website, please click below to request its removal: