Helicopter parenting refers to the practice of hovering over your kids and watching every activity they do and constantly worrying about whether they will make a slight misstep in life. Our society is drenched in the culture of fear that children might get raped, kidnapped or abused. But helicopter parenting does no favours to kids.
Though it can be challenging to watch a kid fail or wonder if they will succeed, but this is a vital ingredient in the journey towards a successful adulthood. According to a new study, helicopter parenting can trigger anxiety in kids and hamper their emotional and cognitive development.
How helicopter parenting affects children?
It creates resentment
Children like to be independent and confident in their ability to handle the world. They may resent parenting which does not give them enough opportunities to build skills and some may grow up to be rebellious.
Its makes children fearful and distrust strangers
If parents are anxious and fearful all the time, their children are more likely to pick up on these traits.
There is a lack of social and problem-solving skills
Parents try to interfere when their children have a conflict with others and try to resolve things themselves instead of allowing their children to solve their own issues. This results in children being unaware of how to cope with failure or face challenging situations on their own.
Kids become prone to more health problems
Children of helicopter parents have more health issues as compared to others as they are used to their parents managing their medical appointments and lives, and they do not care or act responsibly for their bodies.
How can you build self-confidence and self-reliance in your children in a balanced way?
Train them to think for themselves
Parents should ask their kids to come up with solutions to everyday challenges. It boosts their kid’s confidence in their ability to face difficult circumstances.
Focus on making them independent
Children become more confident and independent when they face risks. Let them ride a bicycle and go around the streets.
Don’t keep a hold on them
Stop monitoring your children when they are at college or even in the workplace. There are many cases when parents are still controlling their adult children’s schedules by keeping track of their schedules. This is not healthy for their mental and emotional growth. Try and strike a balance between overprotectiveness and care.
Learn to be a friend first
Once ace actor Amitabh Bachchan said to his father that “he should have asked him, before giving him birth. To, which his writer-poet father late Shri Harivansh Rai Bachchan wrote him a letter and kept it by his pillow, which said that “if I could not do it, you ask your son for his approval before giving birth to him”. These kinds of conversation even take place with people at this level as well, so we parents should not be worried slightly should be patient, for it is not just with adults but with kids also to feel certain things personally, and it becomes your duty as guardians to make them feel like they are chilling out with their friends when it is an outing session with you.
Being a friend is regular; however, being better than what a best friend would do is the deal, quite uncracked and challenging. Do not stress yourself either, talk to your ward, fit in their thought process and then let it go with the flow.
Parenting is a part of life and not a job. One must not take it too hideously! Keep calm, and that is the be-all to help you out of certain positions.