Back in the Day… Most of Us DIDN’T Have Helicopter Parents

Back in the day… we DIDN’T have too many helicopter parents.

Parents didn’t hover over us and protect us from getting hurt. Instead, they said things like, “Quit your bawling or I’ll really give you something to cry about.”

Parents didn’t blame the teacher every time we got in trouble. Instead, they often said, “You get in trouble at school, you get in trouble at home.”

They didn’t rush us to the doctor every time we had a sniffle or a scratch. Instead, they raised us with the If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it philosophy. That meant if there were no broken bones and only a minimal amount of blood, we were expected to get up, shake it off, and carry on.

Helicopter Parents of Today

Parents are different today. Helicopter parents do things such as:

• Enroll in the same college classes as their kids.
• Evaluate and recruit friends, dates, and spouses for their kids.
• Cut their food, provide their floaties in the pool, and help them dress in the morning, even when the little darling is… 17.

These are the kind of kids who go home to mommy and daddy every night to be rolled in bubble wrap….tied to a mattress….and locked in a bomb shelter.

Besides helicopter parents, now we have lawnmower parents and jackhammer parents. Leaf-blower parents are perhaps the most annoying. These types make a lot of noise, stir up drama, and blow things around. However, they don’t accomplish much, and the same problems are still there for someone else to clean up.

Jet Fighter Parents of Another Era

Many of us who grew up in the 1970s and 80s experienced Riders on the Storm type of parenting.  The line went something like this: Into this house we’re born – into this world we’re thrown.

My parents were masters of this philosophy. They weren’t overly involved in our day-to-day lives, but when things really hit the fan, they usually showed up.

Jet fighter parents are a unique breed that usually only monitors your life from a distance. You rarely see them as they speed behind the clouds, or the activities, in your daily routine. You might not notice them for long stretches of time.

But when you needed them, baby they were there. If someone was really out to get us or mistreated us, they would fly in at full speed, coming in for the kill, and then zoom off to live their lives. Jet fighter parents didn’t take crap from anyone, including their own kids.

What Happens to Helicopter Kids?

So, what happens to the children of parents who monitor, oversee, and take care of their little darling’s every need? Are these kids destined to grow up and become mini-versions of Mom and Dad? Will they revolt and head off in the opposite direction?

Or do these unfortunate souls linger in some twilight zone between childhood and becoming an adult? Is that why recent generations seem to have so many man-boys and eternal middle-school girls occupying adult bodies?

Time will tell as we head into another generation.

As we all know, many trends repeat themselves, and history often comes full circle. I think we will see a resurgence of jet fighter parents in the not-so-distant future. While no parenting style is perfect, it’s a lot more fun being a jet fighter than a helicopter. This is true whether you’re parenting kids today or from… back in the day.