I hear everyone complaining these days about helicopter parents. In case anyone’s wondering what they are, here’s Wiki’s take on it:  A helicopter parent is a parent who pays extremely close attention to a child’s or children’s experiences and problems, particularly at educational institutions. Helicopter parents are so named because, like helicopters, they “hover overhead”, overseeing every aspect of their child’s life constantly. 

Enough has been said, written and discussed about helicopter parenting and its potential to harm children in the long run, so I am not even going there. Anyway, that’s not what interests me. I am thinking more about the helicopter parents themselves and why they are the way they are. Why exactly do helicopter parents helicopter parent? It obviously can’t be for fun. There has to be a better reason than that.

So my query is this: Are the helicopter parents overcompensating for what they lacked growing up? Perhaps they feel their own parents should have had more time for them, shown more involvement and interest in their activities, helped them more? Is it that as a result they have gone overboard? Are they going to extreme lengths to make amends for what they themselves missed out in their lives from their own parents? Is helicopter parenting a backlash? Are helicopter parents more to be pitied rather than censured?

©Shail Mohan 2018