Some college professors and administrators are now referring to "Lawnmower parents" to describe mothers and fathers who attempt to smooth out and mow down all obstacles, to the extent that they may even attempt to interfere at their children's workplaces, regarding salaries and promotions, after they have graduated from college and are supposedly living on their own. As the children of "helicopter parents" graduate and move into the job market, personnel and human resources departments are becoming acquainted with the phenomenon as well. Some have reported that parents have even begun intruding on salary negotiations.The term "helicopter parents" is a pejorative expression for parents that has been widely used in the media; however, there has been little academic research into the phenomenon. Foster W. Cline, M.D. and Jim Fay coined and defined "helicopter parents" very precisely in a section on "ineffective parenting styles" in their 1990 book Parenting with Love and Logic: Teaching Children Responsibility. It gained wide currency when American college administrators began using it in the early 2000s as the Millennial Generation began reaching college age. Their Baby Boomer parents in turn earned notoriety for practices such as calling their children each morning to wake them up for class and complaining to their professors about grades the children had received. Some of these parents had chosen their child's college and hired consultants to help fine-tune the application process. Summer camp officials have also reported similar behavior from parents.
The rise of the cell phone is often blamed for the explosion of helicopter parenting — it has been called "the world's longest umbilical cord". Parents, for their part, point to rising college tuitions, saying they are just protecting their investment or acting like any other consumer.
The phenomenon is described in the British novel "May Contain Nuts" by John O'Farrell. The novel was subsequently made into a television show. In the novel, a child's mother poses as her daughter in order to take her daughter's upper school entrance exams—since she doesn't trust her daughter to do well enough on the examinations herself. The novel nicely illustrates the paradox of a parent wishing to help their child to achieve success while simultaneously undermining their child's self-esteem through preventing them from either achieving independence or experiencing the consequences of their own actions. In Britain, officials have been contemplating changes to their policies regarding the process of applying to university—largely due to rising numbers of helicopter parents.
The American website "collegeconfidential" also provides many venues for parents to be closely involved in their children's college application processes and frequently includes discussions of the phenomenon of helicopter parenting—with parents debating whether it is appropriate to be involved in helping an adult child select university classes to take, whether parents should expect to communicate with university professors or staff to resolve problems like textbook availability or roommate issues, and whether parents should then go on to be involved in decisions regarding postgraduate studies such as whether or not to earn an Master's or Doctorate degree.
Risk management is a key skill for everybody, but which some children are denied; helicopter parents often restrict their children's activities. Alongside the constant supervision of children is extreme risk aversion and a disproportionate paranoia about risks covered in media reports such as paedophilia. Children are encouraged to spend more time indoors, for example watching television, instead of exploring outdoors. The longer term risks of these practises, such as obesity, bad health and poor risk assessment are accepted because of the perceived child protection advantages. It also deepens generational segregation, encouraging children to view adults as potential abusers.
Institutions such as schools often follow similar risk-averse principles, keeping children in the classroom for more time and forbidding even those activities previously considered a normal part of life. In the longer term, the children remain inexperienced both in dealing with the real world, and in making decisions.
To counter the risk aversion, some parents propose stepping back and allowing children to do their own thing. The term "slow parenting" from Carl Honoré's book Under Pressure, and the books The Idle Parent and Free-Range Kids are broadly equivalent. Forest kindergartens are common in Scandinavia and growing in other countries such as Scotland. Outdoor education or play is gradually gaining popularity.
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