Do you know the fable about the gardener and the butterfly?
One day a gardener comes across a butterfly cocoon, hanging from a leaf. The sunlight is directly behind the cocoon, and the gardener can clearly see the shape of the young butterfly within. He notices it is squirming and moving, he perceives the butterfly to be struggling to emerge. After another couple of minutes, feeling sorry for the creature, he carefully makes a small tear in the delicate housing of the cocoon, hoping to ease the butterfly’s struggle, and helping it to emerge more easily. He is thrilled when he sees how the beautiful insect quickly emerges from its cocoon. Satisfied, he leaves the butterfly resting on the leaf, fully emerged and ready to fly off.
The following morning he returns to the same spot, and is devastated to see that the butterfly is lying dead beneath the leaf where he left it. On telling this sad story to his fellow gardeners, a wizened gardener of many years explains what happened.
“You did not allow the butterfly to struggle” he said simply, “it is during the struggle to emerge that the butterfly strengthens its wings. When you helped it, it emerged weakened and unable to fly.”
Struggle is a prerequisite to building strength and character, in children as well as butterflies; this is a cautionary tale not only for over-keen gardeners, but for parents prone to “over-parenting” or helicopter parenting.
So, are you a helicopter parent? Let’s look at a couple of characteristics:
A few studies have begun to emerge that show that over-parenting can be associated with anxiety and social anxiety in children, and a soaring mental health epidemic on college campuses reveals that today's young adults are increasingly ill equipped for the rigors of campus life, a fact often associated with overprotective parents. A study in 2013 by the American College Health Association found that of nearly 100 000 college students, more than half had felt overwhelming anxiety, 57% felt loneliness, 61% felt sadness and 84% felt overwhelmed by all they had to do.
Admittedly, there has been quite a lot of hand-wringing about helicopter parenting, and ironically much of it can be found in the echo chambers that are parenting blogs — one of the most popular ways overbearing parents communally guilt each other into being better parents.
I have therefore doubled my usual resolve in terms of fact finding to try and find the real research behind the effects of over parenting.
Let’s look at the three key reasons you should give yourself and your children a break:
It is important to acknowledge that today’s parents are caught in the grip of a number of fantasies and fears:
“An Ivy League education is worth more than happiness”,
“My child will not amount to anything unless I push him”,
“When I control my child’s life she is better off”,
“I feel better when my child is doing well.”
These beliefs are generally promulgated by conflicting advice and guidance that preys upon our own fears of inadequacy. We are also, in some respects, part of a helicopter society — where lawsuits and regulations have increased alongside the perception that our world is increasingly dangerous (my experience is that receiving your news primarily via social media can exacerbate this feeling).
The solutions are therefore slightly more complex, and require no small amount of introspection. A good place to start, if you do feel like making some changes to your parenting approach is here.
Keep an eye on the K-20 Blog! Next time I’ll explore strategies that teachers can employ in managing the over-anxious parent.
Thanks for reading!