helicopter parent
Who taught: Sangeetha and Alex
Helicopter parents (source: http://morethangrades.com/)
Being a teacher, Sangeetha has a lot of experiences with many different parents. A few weeks ago, when we had dinner together, Sangeetha told me this expression, “Helicopter parent.” It sounds easy to guess what it means and I am sure you can also get what it means by just hearing it.
As a South Korean, I know what it is like in Korea. I could probably say that majority of Korean parents would be considered as helicopter parents. They would do anything for their children and, some times, it is gone too far. I am not sure what percentage of American parents are hovering over their children all the time.
If I were a parent, how would I be? I would care about them a lot.
This expression is pretty new. It is an early 21st century term and was coined by Dr. Foster W. Cline and Jim Fay. As I research about this expression, I learned another one which sounds like talking about parents who are trying to do even more for their children. It is lawnmower parents. The space between lawn and lawnmower is so close whereas helicopter requires a lot more space.
Also, all the acts done by helicopter parents or lawnmower parents are called to be “over-parenting.” Let me make my own expression here. How about “well-done parenting?”
If I had a choice, I would rather be a helicopter parent than a lawnmower parent. Also, I hope I can try to stay at medium-parenting. Rare-parenting or under-parenting sounds also not good. I guess being a parent is not an easy thing at all.
Helicopter parents are frequently also trophy parents.
Hey Colin, What exactly are trophy parents and trophy kids?
Trophy parents are the parents who live vicariously through their children, taking so much pride in their children’s victories and express so much disappointment/anger at their failures — especially in sports or beauty pageants — that it’s almost like the parent is the child. Oftentimes, the parent was a failure at their own, similar endeavors as a child and want to somehow prove themselves by raising offspring which are more capable.
This in and of itself isn’t bad, but it’s the stereotypical extreme attitudes and extreme pressure these parents place on their children which earns trophy parents a bad reputation. The name comes from an observation that trophy parents seem almost to treasure the trophies of their children more than the children themselves.
Trophy kids are the target of these parents. Trophy kids often resent their parents for the pressure placed upon them, varyingly so if the parent actually was a successful athlete or such as a child.
Thanks, Colin! I seriously think my parents used to be trophy parents when I was young although I do not think I got that many trophies. 🙂
Interesting. I’ve never heard of helicopter, lawnmower, or trophy parents before. I too am curious about the origin of trophy parents. It makes me think of trophy wife, but I can’t see how that idea would relate to parenting.
What is trophy wife? Getting more complicated here.
A trophy wife is a hot young wife that an older rich dude has.
She often has little outright going for her other than her appearance, even though she may actually be very intelligent. She’s kept, and doesn’t need to exert herself in order to get the things she wants, generally.
So, trophy wife’s husband is sugar daddy and sugar daddy’s wife is trophy wife?