In recent years, the world has developed a new style of parenting and it has a pretty catchy phrase: helicopter parents. If you don't know what they are, I'll make it simple; hovering parents that don't allow there kids to leave the house without adult supervision. This new style has resulted in a generation of kids that can't do things themselves. In more ways than one, helicopter parents have crippled their children and taken away their ability to grow and prosper on their own.
I can understand the impulse for parents to keep their children close in consideration of recent events. We do currently live in a scary time in history, but is it truly any more dangerous than any dark period that we've already endured? Is the solution to keep kids locked inside, barricaded from the misfortunes of the outside world? By keeping children away from the issues of the world, you're truly only adding to the problem. Kids need to learn to not talk to strangers, so that when they HAVE to be on their own for whatever reason, they can handle the situation. They need to go to the park and learn how to handle a conflict with another individual. They need to be put into a situation that they're forced to compromise with a peer. I see it way too often; socially awkward kids that can't seem to understand how a conversation works. They awkwardly stumble through, almost visibly struggling, trying to find the right things to say, and I always feel bad. Their parents have spoken for them their entire lives, how could they possibly be expected to hold a mature conversation on their own?
In order for a child to develop properly they need to be exposed to uncomfortable situations. You don't ever see birds staying in the nest their whole lives, eventually their care givers push them out of the nest, forcing them to learn how to fly. That instinct; the instinct of faith, has to overcome the fear that the child won't be safe. I'm not saying it's easy, I'm not a parent myself so I don't know how hard it is, but my parents always encouraged me to go off on my own, to learn and grow. They always made sure it was something that I could handle, but they still had enough faith in me to allow me to go off on my own. They trusted in their efforts in raising me.
Children should not sit inside, watch television, and play video games all day. They have to fall on their bikes, scrape their knees on the sidewalks, get dirty, play freeze tag, get yelled at for being on private property. What the parents of the youngest generation have to grasp is that they are molding the future. They are creating the next presidents, doctors, lawyers, philosophers, artists and philanthropists. If they are glued to the television, how will they know that they love studying the way the ocean works? If they are forced to be in bed before seven, how will they know they love watching the stars and wondering about what else is out there? If they're not allowed to be in Biology club after school, how will they know they have a passion for understanding disease? We need to get back to the days where parents simply said "Boys will be boys" and "Girls will be girls". It's not all perfect, far from it, but at the very least, they will develop the understanding between good and bad, right from wrong. If parents are willing to do that, maybe, just maybe; we'll have a shot at continuing to grow as people and to reach our full potential.
"There is no such thing as being a perfect parent, so just be a real one." - Sue Atkins
