Photo by Penn State
You’ve probably heard the term, HELICOPTER PARENT. Well, there’s a new one out, and it takes this idea to a whole other level (literally):
LAWNMOWER PARENT
What have we come to understand as the helicopter parent?
So, if those are some of the characteristics of helicopter parents, what are lawnmower parents like?
By cutting the grass short,
they suppress
any possibility of growth.
DANGER, DANGER…
What happens when we
make things too easy for our kids?
Sometimes the blade
on the lawnmower gets set so low that we kill the grass…
I’ve done quite a lot of reading and my own observation and research on generations. There is an emerging trend: some parents are showing up at job interviews with their kids…Put yourself in the interviewer’s position. Honestly, parents at an interview with the applicant – this is a total non-starter. No way am I hiring this kid!
No parent INTENDS (sets out)
to have lawnmower IMPACT.
None of us want to intentionally stifle or “kill” our kids. If we consider the potential impact, maybe we won’t act as lawnmowers in the first place…
The best tool to combat
a lawnmower mentality? VOLUNTARY RESTRAINT.
Let me explain. Eight years ago, our daughter was a senior in high school. Rather than go directly to university, she took a gap year. She was an au pair in Switzerland for a year. Mid-way through the year, we were on Skype with her. She was shoulder-shaking crying…not characteristic of our daughter. She was literally so distraught she was unable to put a complete sentence together. She was really struggling living with the family whose kids she was nannying. I wanted to reach through the computer and put my arms around her – or, parachute in and set the family straight and bring my daughter home. At that moment, a voice whispered,
“Don’t you dare!
Something way bigger
than you know
is going on here!”
I had to practice VOLUNTARY RESTRAINT. And by doing so, my daughter battled through a dark time in her young life. She moved on to be a nanny with another Swiss family and had an incredible second half of her year abroad.
Her perseverance through adversity helped her discover who she is,
not who we wanted or
expected her to be.
The fruit of that adversity
will last for the rest of her life.
I’m so grateful for that whisper, at that moment, to not be a helicopter or lawnmower parent. And I’m glad that, at least in that case, I wasn’t…