Dear God please feel free to be my helicopter parent. To be overly involved in my life and continue to point the way to better choices out of the love you have for me.
There was an article today in the Globe giving some validation to a style of parenting that has long been maligned. At times a style I myself embrace or fall victim to depending on point of view.
The Helicopter parent is over parenting or a parent who is TOO involved in their child’s life for TOO long. When their child is TOO old. So how does one distinguish when a child is TOO old to have their parent’s love, concern and advice..How does a parent just stop caring about how a child is doing in school or in their relationships or in their career or in their life and at what age??…I mean do those who resent Helicopter parents argue that it is ok to care but just not to say anything. To just let the being you love suffer all the consequences of a bad choice when perhaps a word of encouragement from a parent who loves them might have moved them to a different choice with less severe consequences. As parents do we ever stop wanting to share our experiences with our kids to help them have a better way than perhaps we might have had.
And TOO old?? I mean are any of us ever TOO old to hear our parent express their love for us? Is it just a style not a substance debate… I mean it is ok to love and care about our children but now we are going to be over critiqued for how we go about expressing that love. I do so lose patience with folks who are so concerned with style that they miss the point or the substance of whatever the issue might be. It seems I know lots of people who are concerned with style over substance and not just in parenting but in so many of the social interactions we encounter everyday.
Again I ask
Dear God please feel free to be my helicopter parent. To be overly involved in my life and continue to point the way to better choices out of the love you have for me.
Amen