Paste your essay in here…There is no such thing as a perfect family or a perfect parent. We don't get the luxury of choosing the family and people that will raise us. As children, we mimic our parent's every move and see them as our future role models. For many, we are a product of the environment and our parents are our major influencers. In recent decades, Parenting has become a controversial topic for many young adults. Given the increasing amount of information provided by bookstores, educational blogs, and parenting forums lot of concerns have emerged regarding the rise of "Helicopter Parenting" and the consequences for the current generation.
To understand the problem, we must first define what is parenting; examine the three main parenting styles and generational parenting. Parenting style is the major influence and foundation of a child. The primary objective of any parent is to keep their children safe, security, and exposed to positivity. Parenting can be one of the most frustrating jobs one will ever have. Since the 1950s, studies and research have detected the relationship between the emotional development of children and parenting styles. This association determines the children's social competence, academic performance, and behavior problems according to Diana Baumrind, a clinical and developmental psychologist from the University of California, Berkeley. There are many ways of parenting children and some methods and techniques are more effective than others. Inefficient parenting can damage the children's mental health causing problems such as anxiety, unhappiness, and low self-esteem. The style used to parent children is vital not only for parent-children-relation but with the outer world as well.
If there are three types of parenting styles, which one matches "Helicopter Parenting"? Baumrind's research on parenting style, Effects of Authoritative Parental Control on Child Behavior subdivides parenting styles into three types: Authoritarian, Permissive, and Authoritative. Authoritarian parents ensure to control, shape, and value the conduct of their child. The behavior of these individuals should match the standards of conduct the parent believes is the right one. Authoritarian parents love is equaled with success, holding high expectations for achievement. Even though they have good intentions and want their children to grow up to be well-raised civilians, authoritarian parents use tools such as hard punishment and humiliation. This parenting style forms moody, hopeless, fearful, and unspontaneous children. Having low self-esteem and not having a voice will affect their future interactions with people and feel like they having nothing to add.
On the other hand, the Permissive Parenting allows their child to control their own life. Children are able to become independent and make their own life decisions even though there is a lack of parental guidance. Parents often give up on being the "authority figure" and the bond becomes to a peer-to-peer relationship. Although this may seem like a good thing, children with lack of parental guidance and presence are most likely to be immature, impulsive, and aggressive towards their parents.
Last but not least, there is the Authoritative Parenting who "directs the child's activities… in a rational, issue-oriented manner… [and] encourages verbal give and take". Managing children's conduct in an age-appropriate manner creates a warm and responsive atmosphere where children are encouraged to express their point of view and participate in family decision-making. It is important to allow children to voice and opine because by doing so they can think for themselves, build self-esteem, feel worthy, and gain respect from their parents. This is by far the most effective style of parenting from all the others; children are most likely to be cheerful, friendly, and socially competent thanks to open communication. Although none of the parenting styles fits perfectly with the standards of helicopter parents, the closest match would be Authoritarian Parenting.
Modern parenting has little similarity to the parenting of fifty years ago or more. A generation can be considered a fragment of the population who have shared experiences and have a sense of history that impacts their philosophy and behavior in the present day. When speaking of countries such as the United States and Canada in North America, Western Europe, Japan and Australia, they can be considered to have three distinct generations that influence modern society: the Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y. Baby Boomers are the group of individuals who were born between 1946 and 1964. The term "Baby Boom" comes from the large amount of childbirths following the World War II. This generation was idealistic and optimistic. Stephen F. Barnes Ph.D., a San Diego State University adjunct Professor of Education, endorses that " [Boomers] experienced unprecedented periods of economic growth and prosperity, in addition to The Mickey Mouse Club and Leave It To Beaver, Elvis Presley…" The post-war optimism motivated in parents the need for stability, opportunity, and prosperity such as pursuing a higher education and moving away from home. Families enjoyed educational, financial, and social opportunities. Raised in the "me before we" scenario, they were skeptical of those in charge and always have something in return.
Born between 1965 and 1980, Generation X grew up in an era of the evolution of technology and political and institutional inability. At times referred as the "Lost Generation", Generation X is the first generation of "latchkey" children, who experienced staying mostly in daycare and divorces. In 1969 the Self-esteem movement emerged a popular philosophy that encouraged parents to award their children. Granting awards and presents would eventually boost children's confidence. Regardless of this movement, Gen Xers are the best-educated generation with half of the young adults having a post-secondary degree and 43% accomplishing a baccalaureate according to The Generation X Report by The University of Michigan Institute. Followed by educating themselves, developing maturity, and becoming part of the labor world, Gen Xers started having families taking into account a lot more caution and pragmatism than their parents (Baby Boomer). Unlike Baby Boomers, Gen Xers were raised in an upbringing of skepticism and consequently made them the most distrustful and critical generation. Generation X members recognize the importance of having an education for themselves as well as for their children. Besides avoiding broken homes and divorces, the main objective of a Generation X parent was having a financially stable and well-educated family,
Born between 1977 and 1994, Generation Y is another immensely populated generation, such as the Baby Boomers, with about 75 million members and represents the 20% of today's population. Known as the Millennial Generation, they were raised, shaped, and influenced by trends and important events in history. Events include the Gulf War, September 11 terrorist attacks, global warming, Afghanistan, high-tech era, and others. Gay marriage, gay couples raising children, a single woman raising children, couples living together without getting married, working mothers, and interracial marriages are some of the trends that Millennials react more open-mindedly than previous generations. In fact, it is the generation where most parties are in favor of gay marriage legalization by the 50% to 36% margin (PewResearch 51). These events and more have played a huge part on the build up of the morality and values of the generation.
Millennials are the youngest generation raised by latchkey parents and Baby Boomers who became parents later in life. Baby Boomers and Generation X members experienced a more hands-off parenting style than the current generation. Parents couldn't keep track of their children's every move due to the lack of technology, unlike today. Also, they were not spoiled at all, so now they over-spoiling their children to counteract the attention they couldn't get when they were young. This was the dawn of helicopter parents in the Millennial generation.
Helicopter parents are hyper-involved in their children's lives. The qualities a millennial are inherited from their home and society. The self-esteem movement and economic crashes from past generations produced multiple scares for helicopter parents such as the fall of Wall Street, early 1990 recession, Dot-com bubble, and the United States housing bubble in 2006/2007. As a result, parents became skeptical of the economy and instability. They wanted their children to be protected from the hardships they went through. There is a difference between being involved and overprotective. Being an involved parent is healthy for the child's development and being overprotective can cause long-term mental health problems.
There are six consequences helicopter parenting. Millennials feel like their parents don't trust them to perform well enough on their own since they are constantly being watched like convicts. The lack of confidence and self-esteem urges the need for feedback. Next, there is the inability to handle their personal battles. Parents were always around to clean up the mess of their children so they don't have to confront loss, disappointment, or even failure. Children that were unable to deal with their personal stress, now struggle to handle their own conflicts.
Hyper-involved parents are linked to anxiety and depression. Children don't have the space necessary to fight their own battles so now they are unable to learn and solve problems. Not being able to experience failure develops a vast anxiety of failure and disappointment. High sense of entitlement comes next. Millennials are used to having things done their way and this develops a sense of entitlement.
Helicopter parenting acts as a curse that will continue hunting Millennials to college, graduate school, workforce, and their homes when they have a family.
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