3 ms·

The reason behind the rise of helicopter parenting

1 points by laurex 8y ago

stevespang 8y ago
From experience I can tell you helicopter parenting works. I was raised middle class in a rather upscale suburb by a single mother who had to work. My brothers and I had "way too much free time" to get involved with drugs, alcohol, etc. and I was the only 1 out of 3 brothers who pushed back and pursued academic and business goals (and got my degree). So fast forward to around year 2000, I have a son whom I decide is NOT going to go this route, I invested a much higher amount of time in him than my peers, strongly encouraged him to participate in science fairs, all forms of aquatic sports, USTA junior tennis competitions and high school tennis, he never said no, but if he did I would likely have coerced him anyway, his mom and I constantly reinforced him how important academics were, his high school was extremely competitive, the most competitive of all public high schools around Austin, TX. I noticed all the other parents with kids on the tennis team were very similar in this fact, they monitored and were highly involved in their kids lives to try and keep them away from drugs and gang lifestyles - - helicopter parents. But guess what ? Almost all these kids ended up with high GPA's, going to top universities, almost all graduate with top degrees and job offers. My son graduated high school with 52 AP hours, graduating this May in Comp. Sci from UT Austin in 3 years time, hi-tech internship 2 summers, was offered and accepted over 6 figures starting salary, $10K signing bonus, $40k stock options before he even started his final semester, yet only has a "B" average in Comp. sci. 2 patents co-filed already not related to Comp. Sci.. Now let those who ignored their kids formative years whose kids are now covered in tattoos and with arrest records, flipping burgers for an occupation sit there and tell me helicopter parenting doesn't work, or is "excessive".

3 ms·

The reason behind the rise of helicopter parenting

1 points by laurex 8y ago

stevespang 8y ago
From experience I can tell you helicopter parenting works. I was raised middle class in a rather upscale suburb by a single mother who had to work. My brothers and I had "way too much free time" to get involved with drugs, alcohol, etc. and I was the only 1 out of 3 brothers who pushed back and pursued academic and business goals (and got my degree). So fast forward to around year 2000, I have a son whom I decide is NOT going to go this route, I invested a much higher amount of time in him than my peers, strongly encouraged him to participate in science fairs, all forms of aquatic sports, USTA junior tennis competitions and high school tennis, he never said no, but if he did I would likely have coerced him anyway, his mom and I constantly reinforced him how important academics were, his high school was extremely competitive, the most competitive of all public high schools around Austin, TX. I noticed all the other parents with kids on the tennis team were very similar in this fact, they monitored and were highly involved in their kids lives to try and keep them away from drugs and gang lifestyles - - helicopter parents. But guess what ? Almost all these kids ended up with high GPA's, going to top universities, almost all graduate with top degrees and job offers. My son graduated high school with 52 AP hours, graduating this May in Comp. Sci from UT Austin in 3 years time, hi-tech internship 2 summers, was offered and accepted over 6 figures starting salary, $10K signing bonus, $40k stock options before he even started his final semester, yet only has a "B" average in Comp. sci. 2 patents co-filed already not related to Comp. Sci.. Now let those who ignored their kids formative years whose kids are now covered in tattoos and with arrest records, flipping burgers for an occupation sit there and tell me helicopter parenting doesn't work, or is "excessive".