It was the middle of the winter and the snow was falling. I stepped outside to play but found myself unable to move. My jacket was so puffy and warm I couldn’t move my head. This of course was an immediate disadvantage in a snowball fight. I complained to my overbearing mother about my lack of peripheral vision. She didn’t care. Her only worry was that I didn’t come down with a bad case of pneumonia. My lack of fun was of no concern.
My mother is a baby boomer. Many would believe that this fact makes her a helicopter parent and therefore I, her only child, a victim of over parenting.
To some degree I can agree with that. But I certainly do not feel as though I am at a disadvantage because of the way I was raised. I believe that the bigger influence in the way my mother raised me was the fact that I was her only child. As so, she felt a responsibility to do it right.
As a child I was never denied anything I wanted as long as it would be beneficial to me in the eyes of my mother. From ballet, to tutors, to soccer, to a failed college advisor, my mother pulled out all the stops for me. I agree with the idea of helicopter parents but I do not believe that they are rampantly ruining a generation of hard workers.
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1 comment:
When you bring up the only child aspect of it, I think that effects how most parents act a lot. I am one of two, and because my sister and I are so close in age, my mom was never too over bearing I think because she had so much to worry about, but had enough experience from having two kids that she knew how much space to give up while still staying around incase she was needed. It seems that the number of children effect many ways that families function.
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