Helicopter or lawnmower? Modern parenting styles can get in the way of raising well-balanced children
23rd July 2017
When many middle-aged people think back to their childhood, they remember roaming the streets with their friends during long, hot summers. Our parents threw us out the door in the morning and instructed us not to come back until dinnertime. Often in charge of younger siblings, we strayed further than we should have, got into trouble and, by the end of the summer, had a collection of triumphs, scars and memories for life.
Sometimes the old ways are best.
Parenting hasn’t only changed in terms of what is considered safe for children. Parents now worry more about the impact of their parenting on their children, feeling pressured to provide a stream of stimulating activities in a way that would have once seemed absurd. This has led to the emergence of two types of related parenting styles: the “helicopter” and the “lawnmower”.
My mother’s idea of ‘stream of stimulating activities’ chiefly involved a belt and me bent over the rim of a bathtub. I’ll pass.