BreakPoint Blog
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Over-Involved Parents: Helpful or Hurtful? If parents don't set a good example, how can their children learn to flourish? To put it differently, in their quest to help their children, are some parents hurting them by being over-involved? Case in point: Organizers of an Easter egg hunt cancelled festivities this year because parents were out of hand. Wanting to give their children "an edge" over other children, parents were racing out in front and finding eggs for their egg hunter. There is a term for this phenomenon: helicopter parents. Parents are incessantly hoovering over their children to ensure their children beat everyone else. Besides showing poor sportsmanship, these parents create other problems for their children. If the children aren't allowed to try and fail, how many of them will fail to develop the curiosity and perseverance necessary for life? Not allowing children the thrill of creating and really achieving was brought home to me recently. My grandson is a Cub Scout. A few months ago, each member built a pinewood derby car to race. The parent was to use the dangerous woodcutting tools, but the scout was supposed to do the other work like drawing and painting. At the race, it was apparent that there was a difference between the kids who'd done the "other" work, and those whose parents did all the work. I wonder how many would-be artisans, inventors, and so on are being stymied by their parents' aggressive competitive drive. Will they learn to overcome momentary failure in order to find success? |
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Besides, rattlesnakes are incredibly slow in comparison to -OW!!!
(OTGBATIHS; "Obligatory 'There's Gotta Be A Topic In Here SOMEwhere...'": Are people who are class clowns as adults, particularly those of us who are class clowns at blogs, possibly those who had parents who were *insufficiently* involved in their childhoods? ;-) )
(OOTS; "Optional On-Topic Story": When my kids were little and we took them to a local Easter Egg hunt, we ran into competitive parents who had no problem making other children cry - including ours. Our kids did right, helping up the little ones who were mowed down by the tykes who were just following parental orders. Ours came away empty-handed and in tears. We told them that somehow God would reward them for doing right (1 Pet. 3:14). A man overheard us and called our children over, popped his trunk, and within were enormous plastic bags of eggs, the leftovers of what had been used to fill the "field of tears". "Take all you want!" he told them. Our kids took only one each, but the tears were gone, replaced with big smiles. We kept walking to an adjacent pizza parlor, where the manager overheard us discussing the day's lesson - and the miracle of being overheard - whereupon the manager said our pizza was free. Twenty-plus years later, it still brings tears to my eyes.)
LeeQuod let it slip that he no longer fears the YOD. Between you and me, I think I just found out why. http://video.foxnews.com/v/1547642323001/robo-squirrel-vs-rattlesnake?intcmp=features
It’s time to call his bluff. Next time he posts, ask for credentials. If he wags left, simply ignore him. If he wags right, bring out the rattlesnake. If he hems and haws like he just got caught with his forepaws in the Planters dish, use the YOD.
Sorry, Lee, but surely you know why I’m doing this don’t you? I’m doing it because using science to dodge consequences is an even more egregious infraction of the rules of commenting than going off topic.
Yeah, either that or because misery loves company, and Roboduck is still on the drawing board.
ROLLEY: Ouch!
LEEQUOD: Ouch!
Snort.
Bwah-ha-ha-ha.
Chuckle.
Chortle.
Guffaw.
Giggle. (Wait a minute. Do guys giggle? Strike that. Make it ‘cackle’. As long as we’re weaving threads we might as well include Anne’s ‘Mirror, Mirror’).
And, for good measure, I’ll throw in a YeeHaw!!! Or two. Ready? “YeeHaw or two!!!”
Which is to say; in other words; to put it differently; in short – stick around, Jason dear chap, and between LeeQuod and me, you are bound to see a living display of YOD. . . .
ROLLEY: Pssst, Rolley, duck!
ROLLEY: Yeah, so I’m a duck. What of it?
ROLLEY: No, no, no. I mean *duck* as in *down*.
ROLLEY: *Duck down*? You mean *feathers*?
ROLLEY: No, no, no, goofus. *Duck* as in *get down*!
ROLLEY: I already did.
ROLLEY: What are you talking about?
ROLLEY: Rolley, I declare you’ve got more dense than a car hood after a hail storm. Didn’t you just hear me yell “YeeHaw!!!”?
ROLLEY: No, no, no! I what I meant was. . . .augh! Too late!
[swoosh!]
ROLLEY: Ouch!
ROLLEY: Ouch!
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Or, Jason, if you happened to blink there, you can always use this (cough) ingenious Search utility to safely determine the etymology of YOD:
http://wwwuuwuu.tripod.com/SearchPlus.html
And what in the world is YOD, Rolley?
http://static.desktopnexus.com/thumbnails/35419-bigthumbnail.jpg
Actually, I was trying to think how to tie this post to Kim's earlier one about Telemann, and thereby to Mozart the boy genius, without saying anything that might be hurtful to Kim, and I wasn't able to think of anything that was also edifying. (I'm also trying to avoid emulating St. Peter in the last part of Luke 9:33, which The Message translates as "He blurted this out without thinking." If the first Pope was prone to doing that, how much moreso l'il ol' me?)
What the. . . ???
Hmm. For a second there I thought I got hit by the YOD; but no, turns out it was Jason, keeping quiet and to himself too much. Hurts, you know.
And that’s true of a lot of other folks around here – whose names I won’t mention. But YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE.
You sound a lot like me as a kid: the one with all the scruples and little self-confidence.
By "too introverted", I was attempting to use a shorthand for the quiet, keep-to-themselves kids. I could have written out a lengthy explanation, but thought my post was too long. Sorry if I confused you.
And, btw, isn't it interesting that you asked about the "introverted" part, and not the "rowdy" part???
Parenting is stressful for both children and parents with all the dangers we didn't have when I was a kid. But there are also new opportunities I didn't have. As long as the children seem "normal" (not too rowdy, not too introverted), I'm inclined to look on from the side-lines in admiration rather than judgementally.