‘Helicopter parents’

From a story we’ll be running on Monday:

As a consultant to several universities, Helen E. Johnson has noticed a huge increase during the past decade in bright students who lacked the maturity to handle college on their own.

“They need constant reinforcement and support,” said Johnson, co-author of the parent guide “Don’t Tell Me What to Do, Just Send Money.” “They never really forge intimate relationships with their peers. … They don’t have judgment. They can’t take criticism.”

What do many of these students have in common? Their parents were over-involved in their children’s classrooms, usually from an early age.

Typically, it started in elementary school, where their well-meaning “helicopter parents” (so named because of their habit of hovering over their kids) spent hours volunteering in their classrooms, editing or rewriting assignments and trying to make sure nothing ever went wrong.

But it’s a tricky, touchy subject. Parents, after all, only want the best for their kids. Who can blame them? In most instances, teachers embrace the help parents provide. They don’t want to anger or discourage them.

So with autumn in the air and the school year in full swing, many American parents may wonder: How much help is too much? Finding the right balance regarding their children’s education might be one of the biggest challenges they face in the 21st century.

This gets back to the age-old question of protecting kids vs. helping them to become independent. How do you know where to draw the line? Have you ever known any kids who were hamstrung by overbearing parents?