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Lawnmower Parents Are the New Helicopter Parents

16 points by wallflower 8y ago

NullPrefix 8y ago
This is retarded. Lawn mowers can't remove obstacles, you're supposed to remove them yourself before mowing. Or is grass the metaphorical obstacle?
dragonwriter 8y ago
> Lawnmower parents go to whatever lengths necessary to prevent their child from having to face adversity, struggle, or failure. This is pretty much exactly what the term “helicopter parent” refers to, so this just seems to be inventing a new word for a phenomenon which has been well-known and widely complained about—with its own special term—since the 1980s.
- dudul 8y ago
  I thought the same thing, but in another article about "lawnmower parents", "helicopter parent" is defined as parents who rush to help their child when he/she encounters an obstacle. I guess the idea of "lawnmower parents" is that they do the work upfront so the kid never even knew there was an obstacle. In any case, I tend to agree with you, looks like the same thing.
  - _nalply 8y ago
    Helicopter parents hover over their children and clear away obstacles whenever they appear. Lawnmower parents however clear away obstacles beforehand.
    - dragonwriter 8y ago
      Sure, that's what all the generalizations say. All the actual examples I've seen cited in articles about Lawnmower parenting are identical to examples I've seen cited in articles about helicopter parenting, and many of them are reactive, not proactive (in fact, the lead one in the article here is reactive to the child’s complaint.) So, to the extent that there is a difference in how the labels are described, it doesn't seem to have any substance at all when it comes to the actual concrete phenomena they are used to describe; if it's not a conscious creation of a new label because complaints about the old one were so well worn as to no longer draw attention (which I suspect it is), it's just a different perception of the underlying thought process behind the same behavior.
jstandard 8y ago
Not much content here, just an anecdote. "Don't over-parent" In particular, there wasn't any evidence supporting the implications by the title that Lawnmower Parents are a new, rising phenomenon.

16 points by wallflower 8y ago

This is retarded. Lawn mowers can't remove obstacles, you're supposed to remove them yourself before mowing. Or is grass the metaphorical obstacle?

dragonwriter 8y ago

> Lawnmower parents go to whatever lengths necessary to prevent their child from having to face adversity, struggle, or failure. This is pretty much exactly what the term “helicopter parent” refers to, so this just seems to be inventing a new word for a phenomenon which has been well-known and widely complained about—with its own special term—since the 1980s.

dudul 8y ago
I thought the same thing, but in another article about "lawnmower parents", "helicopter parent" is defined as parents who rush to help their child when he/she encounters an obstacle. I guess the idea of "lawnmower parents" is that they do the work upfront so the kid never even knew there was an obstacle. In any case, I tend to agree with you, looks like the same thing.
- _nalply 8y ago
  Helicopter parents hover over their children and clear away obstacles whenever they appear. Lawnmower parents however clear away obstacles beforehand.
  - dragonwriter 8y ago
    Sure, that's what all the generalizations say. All the actual examples I've seen cited in articles about Lawnmower parenting are identical to examples I've seen cited in articles about helicopter parenting, and many of them are reactive, not proactive (in fact, the lead one in the article here is reactive to the child’s complaint.) So, to the extent that there is a difference in how the labels are described, it doesn't seem to have any substance at all when it comes to the actual concrete phenomena they are used to describe; if it's not a conscious creation of a new label because complaints about the old one were so well worn as to no longer draw attention (which I suspect it is), it's just a different perception of the underlying thought process behind the same behavior.

jstandard 8y ago

Not much content here, just an anecdote. "Don't over-parent" In particular, there wasn't any evidence supporting the implications by the title that Lawnmower Parents are a new, rising phenomenon.