It's in the nature of parents to wants to guide and protect their ward at every given opportunity because of their love and parental instinct, however while that's is good, it's worth noting that there's a thin line between being a supportive parent and becoming a helicopter parent; which is regarded as the type of parents that are overly involved in their children lives, to the point of controlling and managing their experiences, which can go on to be detrimental to such children's growth and chances of survival when they're independent.
I understand that it's the responsibility of parent to superced the lives of our children from their tender age to the point where they can fend for themselves and these includes guiding, protecting, providing and offering valuable support and advice during each phrases of their lives, while these are good, we must understand that children also needs time to themselves to try out things and experience live without the constant input of their parents.
When parents becomes too present in the lives of their children, it can be really dangerous, because it prevents such a child from learn from their own experience and mistakes, so how do we as a parent plays our roles to our children without making it overly? I meaning how can we find the right balance between protection and independence? to do this, we must find out how we can give our children freedom to make their own decision and improve their problems solving skills, while we still provide valuable guidance they need.
Before I delve into how we can find a balance between the questions asked above, I guess it's be ideal if I start by explaining what helicopter parenting is, I myself don't know this until today when I had to read through it online, but then my understanding of it is an overprotective style of parenting, where everything is literally done in excess without giving the child opportunity to experience life themselves, because the parents intervene in their lives regularly.
Dangers of helicopter parenting on children includes inability of the child to make decisions on their own, since they're used to being told what to do, also lack of resilience, as they've not been allowed to gain valuable life experiences that'll shape their resilience, and lastly inability to handle independence, a child who had been taught and guided on what to do and how to do it throughout their childhood won't be capable of doing anything on their own and that's why I'm of the opinion that helicopter parenting isn't ideal.
Now being I delve into how we can strike a balance, it's worth noting that because be frown against helicopter parenting doesn't mean we should give too much space and that's why here I talked about some of the risks of giving too much space, own of which includes lacks of discipline amongst the children, a child who's given too much freedom without any caution will lack discipline, also poor decision making, while we said parents shouldn't be to intrusive in children lives, not showing up at all in their choice making can lead to them having a poor decision making, and lastly it can lead to emotional distance, because a child who doesn't have the present of his or her parents would feel neglected.
With the understanding of the above-listed points that talk about the benefits and dangers of being too close and distant from our children, now let's take a delve into how we can be involved in the lives of our children without doing too much, and below I listed some key points.
There are several other ways we can strike a balance between these things aside from the ones I highlighted above, and they are setting boundaries and expectations for our children, maintaining open communication that fosters a safe space where a child feels comfortable to talk to us about their children, and many others. These can make a difference, and we should initiate a change in our parenting style going forward because finding balance would allow our children to develop into independent, capable, and confident individuals. Our responsibility as parents isn't to hover over our young ones but to offer support and guidance on their path in navigating life.
All photos are taken and edited on canva.
