Sunday, February 17, 2013

Helicopter Parents Infiltrate College, the Workplace and Beyond

From an article in Global Calgary:

“If you’re doing your eight-year-old’s homework, you’re going to end up doing your 18-year-old’s work."

"From policing college grades to calling in sick for their adult children at work, helicopter parents are keeping a closer and closer cruising altitude over emerging adulthood – that post-high school period at which previous generations began fending for themselves. "

"...the phenomenon of coddled 20-somethings is 'the downstream result of our fertility decisions and economic issues.'"

"...older Gen X’ers waited to have kids due to delayed career starts and financial instability, and ultimately had fewer children – leaving them more time to obsess over the youths’ personal successes and failures."

"...helicopter parenting may be robbing young people 'of the experiences necessary to develop skills that are essential for success in marriage, careers and adult social interactions.'"

“What you have is a generation who expects their parents to do things for them. And they expect that because their parents have always done things for them.”
“I wonder what would happen if we all stopped pushing our kids to succeed and just let natural selection run its course? Sort of like the housing bubble: let the whole thing burst instead of running around to tutors, after school programs, language lessons, and lining up to register for sports programs.”

Read the full article here.

2 comments:

  1. I have received some great comments back, by email. A college instructor told me that ten years ago she never saw parents in the building. Now they "come and hand in their applications, buy their books..." She had one parent want to set up a parent-teacher interview.

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