The Week’s ‘health scare of the week’ describes research on the negative effects of helicopter parenting. Nicole Perry, the lead researcher on the project, described June 18, 2018, by the American Psychological Association, said,
“Our findings underscore the importance of educating often well-intentioned parents about supporting children’s autonomy with handling emotional challenges.”
Yes, yes and yes!
The report
goes on to say that Perry suggests …
“Parents can help their children learn to control their emotions and behavior by talking with them about how to understand their feelings and by explaining what behaviors may result from feeling certain emotions, as well as the consequences of different responses. Then parents can help their children identify positive coping strategies, like deep breathing, listening to music, coloring or retreating to a quiet space.
The postscript I would add to this stellar work is that parents and others in parenting roles can help each other do just that: monitor and manage our own emotions. Then we will be better able to help our children do the same.
Fred Rogers said it very well (Mr. Rogers actually said a lot of things very well). His words:
“Anything that’s human is mentionable, and anything that is mentionable can be more manageable. When we can talk about our feelings, they become less overwhelming, less upsetting, and less scary. The people we trust with that important talk can help us know that we are not alone.”