Helicopter parent, ME?
Let's hear it for helicopter parenting. Well, maybe not. I admit, I'm one who practices it. My son is nearly 12 and I'm still trying to arrange play dates (only now they call it "hanging out"). I'm obsessed with his homework and don't relax till it's done (yes, I let him do it). Also, who he's talking to on Skype. And, I admit it, try to get him to eat his vegetables. But an essay in The New York Times' Sunday Review stopped me dead in my tracks. Eli J. Finkel and Grainne M. Fitzsimons quoted studies that have found that the more helicopter parenting we do, "the less satisfied college students feel with their lives." I'm a little ways away from college but still it got to me. The two reported that "certain forms of help can dilute recipients’ sense of accountability for their own success." Duh. If Mom and Dad do everything, why bother? Now I'm not nearly as bad as the parents who, trying to get the...