What are the criticism of helicopter parenting?

The benefits of learning the hard way, having obstacles to overcome is what helps children to build resilience, to develop coping skills to deal with things that are difficult. Children need to learn through trial and error — this worked, this didn’t work. But with no suffering, you build no skills. Eventually an overprotected child will grow into an adult and face adult problems: “I’m having trouble getting a job.” “I didn’t get accepted to that program I wanted.” “That guy didn’t ask me to marry him.” Whatever it is, if you have no tools in your armory for coping with disappointment, for struggling and persevering, then you’re in trouble. I think that kind of lack of resilience — the feeling of being overwhelmed as an adult and unable to cope — often ends in depression. Another problem is that parents often want to sort of enjoy childhood all over again through the eyes of their kids, but when you blur the boundaries, because it’s fun to sort of be a teen with your teenager, it can lead to over-identification. Wanting to protect a child from suffering is also the reason why some parents tend to be very poor disciplinarians, if you are very identified with your child then it’s painful to discipline them because you are standing so much in their shoes that you feel like you are disciplining yourself. Having parents who set limits enables kids to internalize their own moral compass, they learn to say to themselves some form of, “No, I really can’t do that; that’s my limit.” If you didn’t provide any of this kind of training, it’s going to be harder for them to set limits for themselves. Helicopter parenting is problematic because an overprotected child will grow into an adult and face adult problems: A child needs to develop tools for coping with disappointment and for struggling and persevering.

Helicopter parenting refers to parents who pays excessively close attention to everything the child does. This includes never letting them out of their sight and not allowing them to explore the world on their own. The effects are almost entirely negative. Children with helicopter parents become overwhelmingly defiant and frustrated. By being less able to control their emotions, those children were less capable in dealing with distressing situations. They were also unable in conducting themselves properly and adjusting to new situations, such as at school. This means that being an overcontrolling parent can have a direct negative impact on their school performance. Furthermore, according to a 2016 study from Florida State University, children with helicopter parents are more likely to suffer from health problems, have a tendency towards self-entitlement and are less likely to be self-sustainable due to the lack of independence from a young age. The guaranteed end results of helicopter parenting are detrimental and will rob them of the necessary self-sustainability required in adult life.