Helicopter Parenting: A Style Analysis

The journey of a parent is a demanding one, and around the world there are several different strategies to raising a kid. Some parents, like Ben Cash from the movie Captain Fantastic (Ross 2016), believe in independence, maintaining peak fitness, and the importance of education. A style popular in the U.S is called Helicopter Parenting.This style focuses on boosted the child's self esteem, and making making decisions, and doing as much as the parent can to make the child's path to adulthood easier. In the article What Parents Can Learn From a Town That Produced 11 Olympians (Crouse 2018), a small town called Norwich has a unique brand of parenting that stresses participation over prowess, having fun, and letting the kids decide their own activities

This approach to parenting involves making all of the kids decisions, keeping the child's self esteem high, and really trying to make the child’s childhood as easy as possible. This style is certainly not superior to the style used by the parents of Norwich, Vermont because the children who have had Helicopter Parents are not independent! When the kid goes to college, and eventually becomes an adult, they are not good enough at making decisions to be able to make good decisions for them self. In the article When Helping Hurts by Eli Finkel and Grainne Fitzsimons, Eli and Grainne explain “If mom and dad are always around to solve my problems, why spend three straight nights in the library rather than hanging out with my friends”. Decisions like that will eventually lead to unhappiness, and since the kid wasn't prepared for making the decisions, they won't be prepared for the aftermath of bad decisions. If the parents had let the kids take control of the activities, jobs, and decisions that they made, the kids would be better prepared for adult life, and thats why its better parenting to let the child be

Free Range parenting stresses letting the children run free, and learn of the world on their own terms. The Walls in book “The Glass Castle” by Jeannette Walls, and Ben Cash in the film Captain Fantastic (Ross 2016) both practised Free Range parenting, and the both gave great examples of why Free Range parenting isn't quite superior. One of the keys of letting your kids be independent, is to never let the kids endanger themselves. Ben Cash failed to do this when he let his kids climb a cliff during a strong rain. This resulted in Relian fracturing his wrist. Another time Ben pushed Vespyr to climb the roof of his father in laws house. This resulted in Vespyr falling very hard to the ground, and injuring herself badly. Rex and Rose Mary Walls also failed to keep their kids safety as a priority. For example Jeannette catches herself on fire while cooking hotdogs, and shortly after Brian cuts his head open. In the case of Ben, he could've been more careful with his kids. This would have prevented a lot of the injuries, without sacrificing the kids independence. In the case of the Walls, if Rex or Rose Mary had only stepped in and offered a little bit of guidance, Jeannette and Brian both wouldn't have been injured, and they would still be just as independent. The Norwich parenting style never sacrifices a child's well-being, and that is why it is superior to Free Range