Helicopter Parents

[Anonymous]

DH and I went to the beach yesterday. Just sitting there enjoying the view, reading and relaxing. Along comes parents and their daughter. She looked to be about 4 or 5. Well the mother was a complete helicopter. Narrated everything the poor kid did. “Okay now we are going to make a sand castle. Now take the shovel and put sand in it then put the sand in the bucket. “ and on and on. Then the little girl wanted some water. “Oh no it’s not time for water.” Who decides when someone else is thirsty? I guess I just don’t understand helicopter parents.

[Anonymous]

If you don’t have kids, I doubt you are a good judge of age. If she is 3/4 maybe a parent speaks like that.

But so what? There are a lot of emotional or behavioral reasons a parent might describe steps to an activity and spell things out so literally. It’s none of your business.

[Anonymous]

Doesn't sound like helicopter parenting. Might be the first time making sand castles.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DH and I went to the beach yesterday. Just sitting there enjoying the view, reading and relaxing. Along comes parents and their daughter. She looked to be about 4 or 5. Well the mother was a complete helicopter. Narrated everything the poor kid did. “Okay now we are going to make a sand castle. Now take the shovel and put sand in it then put the sand in the bucket. “ and on and on. Then the little girl wanted some water. “Oh no it’s not time for water.” Who decides when someone else is thirsty? I guess I just don’t understand helicopter parents.

I did this to some degree, you are narrating to give context and verbally trying to teach your child about the world. I never withheld water but maybe the mom had her reason? Who knows people are crazy.

I do think about this stuff at times though. For example, when I was a kid, I walked by myself to the community pool and swam by myself and with my friends. I must have been in el school.

My children today, we lug all of our crap- googles, sunscreen, snacks, pool toys, drive down to the community pool, and watch our kids like a hawk at our community pool. It's so different.

[Anonymous]

OP, except for this one observation, you know zero about this family and yet you presume to judge.

[Anonymous]

This isn’t helicopter parenting. This kind of narraringn is pretty common in the 1-3 y.o range. You may have missed precious interactions where she already provided water to the kid 100 times and the last 99 the kid only wanted to play with the water not drink.or maybe she knew kid just wanted to play with the water. Or maybe the mom is some crazy who withholds water from her thirsty kid.

Who knows. You just doing have enough info to judge.

[Anonymous]

Maybe the little one wanted water for the sand castle, and you being nosy thought water to drink. Creepy that you’re listening to their conversation, and even weirder posting it on a forum.

[Anonymous]

You sound like a young, childless teacher rushing to judge parents. “Helicopter parents” is a typical label created by your union.
MYOB

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You sound like a young, childless teacher rushing to judge parents. “Helicopter parents” is a typical label created by your union.
MYOB

Predators also use this label. It’s creepy.

[Anonymous]

I was trained in narration by a team of speech pathologists for my child with a global developmental disorder and speech delay. It sounded awkward to my introverted self, unused to speaking like this, but it was a crucial part of my child's therapies.

Said child is now graduating high school with a 4.67 gpa and is off to a good college.

You sound ignorant on a host of developmental issues, OP. Please inform yourself before pronouncing judgment.

[Anonymous]

I don’t think you know what a helicopter parent is.

I like to lay down and chill at the beach and had 2 kids close together in age so they would play together. I don’t see anything wrong with guiding a kid at the beach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I was trained in narration by a team of speech pathologists for my child with a global developmental disorder and speech delay. It sounded awkward to my introverted self, unused to speaking like this, but it was a crucial part of my child's therapies.

Said child is now graduating high school with a 4.67 gpa and is off to a good college.

You sound ignorant on a host of developmental issues, OP. Please inform yourself before pronouncing judgment.

+1 I did this/(do this!) with my autistic child with a language disorder… and a host of other things that might look strange to parents with just neurotypical kids. Especially in the younger years, when my son looked more “normal” I got a lot of looks and even had some parents interfere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You sound like a young, childless teacher rushing to judge parents. “Helicopter parents” is a typical label created by your union.
MYOB

That was quite the leap. Why do you hate teachers?

[Anonymous]

My sister is a special needs teacher and this is exactly how she talks.

(Unfortunately, it gets ingrained and carries over outside of school. She sometimes speaks to her adult children this way when she asks them to do something.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DH and I went to the beach yesterday. Just sitting there enjoying the view, reading and relaxing. Along comes parents and their daughter. She looked to be about 4 or 5. Well the mother was a complete helicopter. Narrated everything the poor kid did. “Okay now we are going to make a sand castle. Now take the shovel and put sand in it then put the sand in the bucket. “ and on and on. Then the little girl wanted some water. “Oh no it’s not time for water.” Who decides when someone else is thirsty? I guess I just don’t understand helicopter parents.

Someone needs to slap you with the MYOB paddle. What were you so jealous of that you couldn't ignore it? Next time bring more challenging reading material.