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.