Are You a Helicopter Parent? It’s Helpful For You!

Parenting in the present era is quite different from parenting in the past. It is due to rising concerns about a child’s safety and education, along with exposure to cyber threats, that parents find themselves constantly on the alert. Parents in this age want to label themselves “ideal parents,” so they get overly involved in every aspect of their kids’ lives.

Nowadays, everyone’s life is full of hustle. Parents are also human beings who want to meet their needs for goods and finance and fulfil their own responsibilities to give their families a better life. The time rate is short, expenses are higher, and stress peaks as expenses grow daily. Some parents are extra possessive about their kids and want to be around them wherever they go. A small change in their moods or behaviours prompted parents, who wanted clarity about their social lives from every perspective.

At the same time, it increases concern as kids feel controlled, while parents feel drained, guilty, or frustrated for not fully taking care of them, even when they do so rightly.

Helicopter parenting is the concept of parents who hover too much over their kids, being part of every activity their kids do. Instead of guiding them and noticing things from the background, they start “hovering around their children, observing everything they do, and then guiding them accordingly.

The term was coined by child psychologist Dr Haim Ginott, who wrote about parents who hovered over their children like a helicopter. Since then, others have appeared on the scene, including lawnmower parents and bulldozer parents who aim to push aside all obstacles for their child, rather than helping them handle the challenges as their own.

Helicopter parenting is an extension of normal parenting. Helicopter parenting occurs when a parent is overly emotionally invested in their child’s success and failure, as well as in their child’s everyday activities. The parent takes everything personally, leading to constant parental intervention in their child’s behaviour. This behaviour can become suffocating for the child, especially as the child grows and independence becomes more important.

Mental health professionals such as Dr Carolyn Daitch attribute anxiety among both parents and children to helicopter parenting. If parents are anxious about errors and uncertainty, they will attempt to micromanage the situation rather than teach their children coping methods.

According to psychologist Dr Ann Dunnewold, over-parenting is helicopter parenting characterised by over-controlling, over-protecting, and setting perfection standards. The point that has been overlooked is that this type of over-parenting is not always overt; in fact, many helicopter parents come across as caring and calm, while everything is controlled behind the scenes.

• Be overprotective of their children
• Have difficulty letting go of their children
• Focus too much on their children
• Do not understand the value of independence in their children
• Be less responsive to their children after they leave home
• Overanalyse and worry excessively about issues that are not major problems

Helicopter parenting parents could have many reasons, but here are the following ones that you need to know:

Some parents always feared that they could get low grades in school or in sports. Moreover, they become over-possessive and start hovering over kids 24/7 to protect them. So, they always stick with their kids to help them. So, they try to prevent their kids from unhappiness and struggle. They push them to work hard to get the best results. Ultimately, kids feel overprotected and unable to learn independently, which prevents them from excelling in their lives.

Many societal concerns and reservations push parents to adopt a helicopter parenting style. So, they want to take control of their kids’ lives. So, they influence their child’s activities to prevent them from hardships and disappointment, “Dr. Daitch said.

You know, sometimes kids should face hardships and natural consequences. Many incidents could harm children and harm them for sure. So, Helicopter parents can micromanage teens’ activities to avoid dire consequences. Helicopter parents take control of their child’s safety into their own hands to cope with issues they could face.

Parents who have faced many hardships and been unloved and ignored are more likely to become Helicopter parents. So, they always try to overcompensate for their children. The parents’ extreme care and attention suggest that something happened to them in their childhood.

Peer pressure can make parents overprotective of their kids. When parents see other Helicopter parents, they push their own children to be like them. So, they start doing the same things that other parents do to their kids. So, parents try to involve their kids deeply because they think about their children when their parents cannot give them quality time.

Do you know that all parents start hovering over kids with good intentions? It is tricky and challenging for parents to engage with their kids. But most parents forget the natural role of parenting. It is healthy to engage with your kids. Because it helps kids acknowledge, love, accept, and have better self-esteem. Parenting can have adverse effects on kids’ minds.

Successes and failures are essential to a child’s upbringing. Parents have to avoid so much influence and let them learn about hardships and success. Helicopter parenting may have benefits, but it also has a dark side. Here are the following consequences of the Helicopter parental style:

Helicopter parenting style comes up with the backfires, “Dr. Dunnewold said. Young kids who face their parents’ influence say their parents don’t trust them. It would shake kids’ confidence because parents hover over their activities and decisions. So, there would be a trust deficit between kids and parents. It is only due to over-possessive parental activities.

If parents try to clean up their kids’ mess and prevent problems, they will lack coping skills. Your kids would not develop the habits and skills. They will not deal with failure and disappointment. So, helicopter parenting can create maladaptive personality traits in kids. According to developmental psychology, parental influence can affect a child’s emotions and behavior. Young kids whose parents perform Helicopter parenting are more likely to become sensitive.

According to the Journal of Child and Family, over-parenting causes many personality issues among kids. It could cause depression and anxiety. It is also the same for the girls and boys studying in colleges and schools. Whose parents have adopted over-parenting?

Kids whose parents influence their academic, social, and athletic lives. It could result in a sense of entitlement. Young kids will become dependent on their parents. Parents will own every achievement of their kids.

Helicopter parents always do things for kids. Likewise, they do packing, launching, and tying their shoes. Also, monitoring school results is more likely to make kids dependent on themselves. Parents would instead let kids learn all the skills to take care of themselves.

Parenting needs balance and support to protect kids from being overly intrusive in their personal environment. The goal is to create an environment where kids are fully aware of what’s right and wrong and, through decision-making, choose and handle tasks self-sufficiently.

However, this does not mean that children should be left alone to tackle every problem by themselves. Rather, parents can step in when advice is needed, teaching children how to handle stress and difficulties. Communication helps children feel that their parents are not controlling them but are there to advise and assist.

With the help of modern monitoring applications such as TheOneSpy, parents can be made aware of their child’s activities without choking them. This will enable parents to shield, direct, and aid their children without becoming helicopter parents.

• Make decisions that their children can make by themselves.
• Step in quickly to prevent mistakes or failure
• Take care of academic, daily, and social activities.
• Struggle to let children face challenges independently.
• Although the point is to protect and help the child succeed, it could come across as if the child is not capable of handling things on his or her own.

Do you want to set parental controls on your kids and avoid being a Helicopter parent? You can do it with TheOneSpy Parental app. You can install the app after subscription and get credentials via email. Further, get physical access to the target device and set up our parental monitoring solution on kids’ cellphones. Log in to the web control panel and enable features to monitor every activity of kids on their phones and in their surroundings.

Here are the features that allow parents to stay updated about their kids and prevent kids from being Helicopter parents:

Live Screen Recording

It is a feature that lets parent’s record live short videos on their kid’s cellphone screen. Further, send the videos to the dashboard. Users can download the videos from the dashboard and see what their kids are doing on their cell phone screens. Users can see social media, web browsing, and other activities to safeguard kids online.

Live Surround Listening

Parents can remotely control their cell phone microphone and connect it to TheOneSpy dashboard. It helps parents to listen to the live surroundings. Users can listen to chats, voices, sounds, and bullying incidents. Parents can also get to listen to party activities.

Live Camera Streaming

You can remotely control kids’ cell phone cameras and get live streaming of the kid’s surroundings remotely. Parents can watch where kids are and what they are doing. Parents can see the whereabouts and activities and listen to the actions by switching cameras with audio.

Call Recording

Parents can record and listen to the live phone calls of the kids on any cellphone device. A call recorder is the best tool for parents to listen to the calls of strangers and the people they plan to meet for hookups.

Keylogging

Keystrokes logging Parents can set parental controls and record keystrokes of chats, messages, passwords, and emails. Parents can also decode the sneaky texting messages of teens online.

GPS Location Tracking

Parents can secretly track the GPS location of their kids. So, you can see the location history and set Geo-fence to prevent kids from visiting the dangerous places in the city having exact and pinpoint the location.

Screen Time

Parents can prevent kids from using dating apps, sugar daddy apps, and other explicit ones. TheOneSpy screen-time feature empowers you to block every inappropriate app on your phone remotely.

There is no need to be a adopt Helicopter Parenting style. Use our TheOneSpy parental solution, and put your worries to rest. Let your child learn the hardships and cope with the difficulties, but TheOneSpy keeps you informed 24/7. So, parents can always rescue their kids and get to know what they are doing.