Helicopter Parents

Remember when you received a B and your parents grounded you and took your phone away? No? Maybe yes? For those who can recall moments like these, you most likely have helicopter parents.

Helicopter parents are parents who read practically any text you send (if you even have a phone), strive for their children to achieve an impressive GPA, and are generally overprotective. Pretty much like a human version of a helicopter blaring right over your head.

Helicopter parents affect their children’s school and social life in detrimental ways.  A student who requested to be anonymous said, “…having these kind of parents does affect my social and school life… usually I can’t hang out with friends because I have to study or do homework”. Another student said, “My parents didn’t tell me but they put a tracker on my phone to see when I receive or send a text. …It makes me feel like they don’t trust me when they have to do that.”

Evidently, strict parents hinder their children’s social life and happiness by not exposing them to real life situations, such as confronting conflicts on their own. If children do not know how it feels to experience failure, then they can’t become confident in their own abilities which can lead to low self-esteem.

While parents may believe that spoon feeding their children and being overly involved creates the ideal child, their strict behavior and at times absurd rules can actually have a negative impact on them.

Children should be able to expose themselves and learn on their own how to handle their conflicts. If parents consistently keep their children under an umbrella, they will become inexperienced in the real world and might even rebel against their parent’s rules. A student added, “I have to admit [my parents] are so strict. I don’t even follow the rules. I stay up past my bedtime and sometimes don’t even do my homework.”Heliparents

A parent of a Langley student said, “I expect my children to always receive outstanding grades and to always commit to their school work. No excuses.”

While parents should be wanting the best for their children, there is an extent. Putting so much stress and pressure on teenagers to be perfect, can lead to disastrous effects. One effect includes severe stress. A national study has concluded that around 73% of teenagers use drugs in order to cope with stress in school. In addition, only a mere seven percent of parents believe that their children use drugs to cope with stress. It is clear that enforcing such rules on children is not effective and can actually be contradictive.