I’m not sure if citations needed has ever done an episode on articles like this, but as a parent and a leftist it’s hard to not start noticing that nearly all parenting “experts” or “success” stories seem to basically boil down to people ‘richsplaining’ how to raise your kids into successful CEOs and career paths.
I find this incredibly frustrating because this bassically accepts as a framework that your kid becoming a CEO is an inarguably laudable goal, rarely if ever asks questions about how psychologically well adjusted they are as people, and perhaps most importantly never addresses the elephant in the room of the role class plays.
I feel like my entire life, in basically every form of media I’ve ever seen: helicopter parenting has been assumed as being wrong and harmful. These days it’s hard for me not to ask if this isn’t just an extension of the culture of “personal responsibility” and “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps.”
Research shows that children are in fact not clay to be shaped and molded into future senators but more like malleable plastic that spring back when you stop forcing outside pressure.
Helicopter parenting is bad when neither of you WANT to do it. Your kid hates soccer, you’re tired of the obligation, there’s a good chance you’re both doing it for no reason and should do fun things instead.
Being anti-helicipter parenting isn’t bootstrap mentality.
It’s like spanking. Parents don’t want to hit kids and lord knows kids hate it but there’s this unscrutinized wisdom that you turned out how you did because your dad spanked you. Ok but what if you didn’t and your dad was hitting you for no good reason. That’s something to be heavily scrutinized.
If only that were universally true.