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Helicopter Parenting is a major issue in most of the parts in India. In almost every middle-class family, the kids face this problem, and a major part of their lives get wasted in solving this issue. When parents get too much involved in their kid’s life and start controlling their every move, that is termed as Helicopter Parenting. This is an issue that parents don’t even think is an issue, and that is the biggest problem. Parents don’t know that a problem of this sort exists and it needs to be solved as immediately as possible.
How Do Parents Do Helicopter Parenting?
Parents, in most cases, think that being parents, it is their right to stay involved in their kid’s lives. But they have don’t know to what extent. Maybe they don’t even want to know. They don’t see any harm in staying too much involved and not giving the space their kids need. They make sure that they know where their kid is at what time, what they are doing when they are in school and where they are at when not, how many tuition classes they go to, on what days and what time, friends they are hanging out with and the friends who they are not friends with anymore, who are calling them at what time and for what reason, how many days they are skipping school in a week.
The kids get tired giving answers to all their parent’s questions, hoping for the parents to get tired and stop asking questions at all. But unfortunately, that never happens. Even if the kids want their privacy and space, they are simply not allowed. The parents, by doing these, believe they are doing the best they can for their kids. Um, maybe not.
Why Helicopter Parenting?
Parents nowadays are insecure about their kids. Thus they become overprotective. They think of all the possible bad things that can happen, and they start thinking that will only happen to their kids. They don’t want to let their kids out in the harsh world all by themselves because they might mess up. What if they don’t? Sometimes they feel that their kids might be hanging out with the wrong people and might end up ruining their lives if they don’t keep track.
Parents want their kids to be afraid of them by letting them know that they know their every move and they can be tracked and punished. In other cases, parents are just obsessed. Obsession is a strong word, and that is how sometimes parents do feel about their kids. The kids with no siblings generally have to face this problem.
According to their parents, the kid is all they have, and they simply can’t let go of them. They are scared even to think that their kid might someday get a job overseas and might leave the house. They think that they are staying involved in their kid’s life just out of love and affection. But they don’t understand that too much of anything, even love, isn’t at all healthy.
And Why Not
Kids won’t have their parents beside them all their lives. Harsh, but true. They have to live a life where they won’t get any support from their parents and have to take all the tough decisions of their lives by themselves. How will they do that if they don’t know the world and how they want to present themselves in front of the world? They, to know how to live, must watch people living their lives and learn. They need to explore the world, and that definitely can’t happen by staying under the shelter of the parents for the major parts of their lives.
Thinking about the wrong things the kids might get involved into and not letting them out and not giving them space definitely won’t help. No matter how hard parents try if the kids want to do something they will find a way out. The more we stop them, the more they want to do it. They aren’t stubborn. Maybe they are often.
But it is human nature and also depends on the age of a person. They want to know why are they being stopped when according to them it is not even a big deal. They will bunk classes, sneak out of the house at night, or when their parents aren’t home and do whatever they want and never got the permission for. And then, they might actually fall in trouble. STOP BEFORE SHOUTING AT THEM AND THINK FOR A MOMENT. Why would they ever do it?
When we keep asking kids questions about everything even when they are not kids anymore, they grow a disinterest in talking about anything at all. Hence, there is almost zero communication between the parents and the kids. Still, all their parents wanna do is ask questions so they don’t miss out on their kid’s life.
But the kids don’t want to talk because they know what response they are going to get and that might even end up being an argument. Sneaking out of the house is easy — no exact deadline, no taking permission and definitely no answering questions. But it could have been better. Parents could give their kids the minimum space they need, talk to their kids and know where they are at. Then they mightn’t get into troubles. Isn’t it?
Last Updated on by Navya S