I wonder if I was a helicopter mom. I certainly went to enough parent/teacher meetings to know the teachers and administrators on a first name basis. That was until I didn't want to know them anymore at all and I became the teacher and I slept with the administrator.
Then my students went off to college and I may have given them some advice but I never called a professor or administrator of a college.
But it was made very clear to me last week that I was not an overly protective mom. Last week, I heard sirens coming down my street around 8:00 pm. They turned on the side street next to my house and out of curiosity I walked over. There was an ambulance, a fire truck, and a police car. There was also a neighbor girl sitting on the sidewalk. Other neighbors came out also and I heard the story...they had been rollerskating and this little girl fell and broke her arm. I watched as they loaded her onto the gurney and prepared to rush her to the hospital.
About 10 or 11 years ago, I had just begun homeschooling and my son and I decided to go for a bike ride. (PE class I guess). Well he rode into a parked car and hurt himself. We rode back and he told me that his wrist hurt. I gave him some advil and told him to take a bath -- I was going to Dallas to meet some friends for lunch. I came home a couple hours later and he told he that it still hurt. I probably gave him some more advil. A couple hours later, when he was still complaining about it, I took him to the emergency room where after an x-ray, they told me that he had a broken wrist!
He didn't get any sirens, he didn't get to ride in an ambulance. He got to sit at home while his mom went to lunch and then he finally got to ride in my Honda Accord to the hospital.
Helicopter mom -- definitely not! Neglectful -- not always!
What the church can learn from David Bowie
9 years ago
1 comment:
I had to look it up on wikipedia:
Helicopter parent is a colloquial, early 21st-century term for a parent who pays extremely close attention to his or her child's or children's experiences and problems, particularly at educational institutions. The term was originally coined by Foster W. Cline, M.D. and Jim Fay in their 1990 book Parenting with Love and Logic: Teaching Children Responsibility[1](www.loveandlogic.com). Helicopter parents are so named because, like helicopters, they hover closely overhead, rarely out of reach, whether their children need them or not. In Scandinavia, this phenomenon is known as curling parenthood and describes parents who attempt to sweep all obstacles out of the paths of their children. It is also called "overparenting". Parents try to resolve their child's problems, and try to stop them coming to harm by keeping them out of dangerous situations[2][3].
No, from my observations you were/are a very well-balanced mom. Not too over-protective or hovering, and not neglectful at all.
I think waiting to see if his wrist still hurt was wise. Usually things do feel better in time.
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