Pros and Cons of Helicopter Parenting

Helicopter parenting is when parents will have an extremely close involvement in their children’s lives. Some say helicopter parenting is bad and some like helicopter parenting. The pros and cons of helicopter parenting are as divided as any other issue in parenting.

The pros of helicopter parenting are-

1. Children and parents can be best friends.
2. Parents always know what is going on in their children’s life.
3. Children can learn from parents and their parents’ mistakes more effectively.

One of the first pros or advantages of helicopter parenting is that children and parents can be best friends. Being a helicopter parent can enable parents and children to form bonding relationships. These relationships will result in being best friends.

Being a best friend to your children can allow a parent to be involved in a child’s life without being pushy and forceful. This is because best friends can talk and give advice without being mean and hurtful.

When parents are helicopter parents they know all that is going on in their children’s lives. This can help the parents to know that their children are safe and doing the things in life that will help them grow and become better people. This is a benefit of helicopter parenting, especially with all the drugs and bad influences that are out there trying to get to children.

Another pro to helicopter parenting is that the children can learn from the parents’ mistakes more effectively. This is because the parents know the decisions that their children have to make and so they can give their advice to a greater advantage to their children.

When children have to figure out what their parents did by reading between the lines of all the stories their parents told them, then they could make the same mistakes as their parents. Children sometimes need to have parents to tell them the full details that cause the mistake. This is done more easily when parents are helicopter parents and are hovering over their children.

The cons of helicopter parenting can be-

1. Less independent children.
2. Children that are living their parents’ dreams and not their own.
3. Having children that will rebel against their parents.

One of the main cons to helicopter parenting is that the children are less independent. This includes not being able to obtain jobs on their own and make their own decisions about college classes, and many more life decisions. Helicopter parenting can cause a child to rely on their parents for many things that they should know about by the time they get into college. This can include; how to write a college acceptance paper, how to pay for the cell phone they use, how to go in and get the car serviced, how to manage money, etc.

Too many times helicopter parenting doesn’t allow a child to learn from his or her own mistakes. The helicopter parent will want to prevent any mistakes by showing or telling the child the right thing to do. Or when a child does make a mistake, the parents will take care of any problems that have been a result form the mistake.

Another con to helicopter parenting is that parents will not let their children live out their own dreams in life. Many times parents will skillfully guide their children into the vocation that the parents want their children to do. The child may go into the designed vocation, but they may not like it and then they will change later in life and have to start at the bottom again in what the child wanted to do in the first place.

The third con to helicopter parenting can be a result of the first two, but can also be separate. Children that have been smothered or hovered over can develop resentment towards their parents and will rebel. It may be a small rebellion that hurts no one. But it could be something very drastic that can hurt not only the parents and the child, but other people in their lives too.

The pros and cons for helicopter parenting could be debated about for a long time. Some like the idea of keeping very close tabs on their children. Then there are some that want their children to live their own life and make their own mistakes. Helicopter parenting can be a positive way to parent in one family’s life and a very negative way to parent in another family’s life. Look at the pros and cons and decide for yourself about helicopter parenting.