I was not raised by a Helicopter and neither were 99% of my cohorts. It was a surprise when I started teaching and discovered that so many of my classroom kids had Helicopter parents.
After a few years I developed a theory over this. When I was a kid, and we moved back to the states (my time overseas isn't really applicable to this discussion) kids were allowed to make mistakes, be punished, and then move on from the incident having learned something. The world didn't end because a kid acted like a kid.
For example, I have a special needs brother. He was being picked on by some kids, older than I was but his age, and they were saying some pretty vile stuff, even by today's standards. I told them to stop and when they kept at my brother I kicked one of them in the "special place." We both ended up before the Principal. The ringleader was required to apologize to my brother, in front of his special needs class, and he did trash duty for a few weeks lunch recess. I had to write a letter of apology and did trash duty after school for a few weeks.
In today's environment I might have been brought up on sexual harrassment policies, or zero tolerance violence policies and kicked out of school. The bully might have been brought up on "hate speech" or intimidation charges. He used a slang term for a homosexual, so he might have also been brought up on sexual charges as well. Some modern schools would have called the cops due to the "violent" nature of the exchange.
I have not become a violent man abusing adult and the bully in question grew into a law abiding fully employed man with a lovely wife and kids. Our school reacted to our behavior by punishing us in an age appropriate way that didn't scar our chances for getting into college or being listed on a sex offender registry.
Lest anyone think I am over-stating the current school atmosphere a middle school boy was arrested, held in jail for five days, and faced lifetime registry as a sex offender for patting a girl on the rear end as part of a game. Did the behavior need to stop, yes. Did the kid need to be arrested and monitored for life, are you kidding me?
In other words, I think parents are being amped up in the fear department and begin to step in to situations that don't require adult interaction because they fear that things could so easily get out of hand and lead to serious, if not life long, consequences.
I don't know if most parents are fully aware of this relationship between a change in discipline and their parenting styles, but I have seen enough of the phenomenon to think many helicopter parents are, at their root, disturbed by the somewhat rational fear that a small mistake on their child's part could be life altering. As such, parental response has "amped up" to deal with the new culture of political correctness and irresponsible leadership.
Give me my old Principal who only had a few rules, enforced those fairly, even across the board, and who didn't throw the baby out with the bath water. There are far too many administrators who are either in league with an "old buddy network" or wound tighter than a cheap girdle.
--Eeyore's Wife
