September 24, 2024- Briefly defined, Helicopter Parenting is when a parent becomes overprotective and involved in every aspect of their child’s life. My point is not that being involved with your child and trying to make sure they can be as successful as possible both emotionally and physically is bad. No,to the contrary,that is what good parenting is all about. The problem is that Helicopter Parenting does not allow children to grow and develop their own personalities dealing with the ups and downs that life throws at each of us. Effective parents have guard rails to make sure their child does not stray into dangerous and inappropriate activities for their age. They function as loving advisors who help them through difficult situations but do not take over for them. Sadly,even when with the best of loving intentions,Helicopter Parents can negatively develop dependency,low self esteem,anxiety,depression and poor interpersonal communication skills in the children they love so dearly and do not want to be hurt emotionally or physically. Typical behaviors of Helicopter Parents would include the following: 1. Completing homework assignments and projects. 2. Calling the school and other parents over minor problems their children are having and putting all the blame on others. 3. Micromanaging all aspects of the lives of their children. 4. Excessive control. 5. Demand for total acquiescence/obedience. 6. Involvement in even minor activities like what flavor of ice cream to eat. 7. Total control of friendships. 8.Will not allow different thoughts and opinions from their own. 9. Will not allow a child to flourish as a free thinking person. 10. Excessive social media tracking. 11. Excessive anxiety and fear that something terrible will happen to their children even if as unlikely as a plane falling out of the sky and killing them. 12. Trying to not allow their children to make mistakes. 13. Little or no insight into the inappropriateness of their behaviors and the emotional harm they can cause their children.