Most people do not involve themselves on helicopter parenting as some perceive it as a practice that seems to be "overprotecting or over controlling" the lives of their children. Hence, there are some people who see helicopter parenting effective in some situations.
Chester Goad, Ed.D, a university administrator and a former U.S. Congressional staffer and K-12 principal and teacher shared his perception about helicopter parenting at Chester Goad.com. In his research, he differentiated the helicopter parent to a tethered parent. He generally pointed these two out as something really different.
Goad said that helicopter parents are engaged and empowering in training their kids to do certain things as they also hover for a while. On the other hand, tethered parents are intrusive. They do things for their kids and have become attached to their children until the situation becomes so dysfunctional. He concluded that helicopter parents most people referring to is what he called "tethered parents."
In some cases, there are parents who choose to be helicopter parents for some reasons. With that, Yahoo Parenting found the need to share the reasons why:
1. Children who Were Born with Physical Disabilities
Goad said that most parents of students who are disabled are often labeled as helicopter parents. Parents would more likely help their children with disabilities. For example, a child is diagnosed with hypotonia or a "low muscle tone" at an early age. This requires lots of physical therapy. The parents tend to support him until he can stand and walk properly. Some parents even hold their children until 6 years old. Some people viewed the parents as overprotective parents. Hence, the reality is they are just doing their part until their child can fully walk, run and play on his own.
2. Children who Were Born with Neurological Issues
There are some children who have neurological issues. They don't want distraction and noise. If they were disrupted, they would panic. Incidents like these can lead to certain accidents. To get rid of these occurrences, parents safeguard their children, which others seem to misunderstood as something that is too much.
3. Enhancing the Physical and Social Skills of Children
When parents notice their children utmost need to be active, they spend time with their children outdoors a lot. These include walking and running with them at the park and exploring with them.
4. Children Who are Clingy
There are kids who want to be cuddled and hugged all the time. Some parents would do anything like these to make their children feel better or until they will overcome such behavior.
5. Safeguarding Their Children; Fear of Losing Them
Some parents who are into helicopter parenting had a traumatic experience. Probably, they have lost children before and they don't want it to happen again. As a result, they give extraordinary attention to their other children as they are afraid to let them go or something bad to happen.
Helicopter parenting can be administered for any of the abovementioned situations. It is also significant that parents attend to their children at all times and most importantly, learn how to raise their children for their own sake.
