Causal Essay (Also Complete the Outline that’s attached)

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Helicopter Parenting.
Parental involvement is crucial to a child’s development into an adult. Most parents will go to the extent of sacrificing their happiness to make sure that their children get the best in life. Being a parent that is always there for a child is one thing, however over interfering with their lives and making every decision is not the best thing to do. The metaphor “Helicopter Parents” gained popularity after Foster Cline and Jim Fay wrote their article on Parenting with Love and Logic (23). By the 2000s, college administrators were using it to refer to overprotective parents. A helicopter parent is one who continually communicates with their children, intervenes in their affairs, decides for them, personally invests in the child’s goals and removes all the obstacles that the kid may encounter. As the name suggests, they are always hovering over their child. Helicopter parenting has a negative effect on the children’s mental health and limit their ability to think and act autonomously.
The adverse effect of helicopter parenting is severe in the young adults in colleges and high school, especially on their mental health. According to research, students who had their parents over-involved in their lives were reported to have lower psychological well-being and mental health issues especially depression and anxiety (“”Helicopter Parents” Stir Up Anxiety, Depression: IU News Room: Indiana University.”). The drastic transition from the home environment to college setting is usually very hard for such kids.

The young adult is not equipped with coping skills to handle the stresses they face in life. In addition to this, they can barely internalize their problems causing them to have no control over their lives. Consequently, helicopter parents hold high standards for their children, a concept that imposes pressure to meet the set expectations which always end up in anxiety and depression.
Parenting is critical in the development of a child’s interpersonal skills such as communication and decision making. A child is usually attached to their parent at a young age; however, with time, they need to create a bond with other peers especially in the school setting. Children with helicopter parents lack social self-efficacy since they have always relied on their parent for all their needs. Socializing and making friends becomes a difficult task and they can barely form relationships with their peers. Ssocializing forms a more significant part of college experiences and without friends, life can be hard on the student and affect their well-being and success in life. Most often than not, this causes a clash of conflict with others since the children can barely compromise. A business report stated that most graduates lack excellent communication and decision making skills (Odenweller, Melanie, and Keith 407). When a fresh graduate is put in the job market, they are expected to make crucial company decisions and communicate with ease both formally and informally. Moreover, employers only hire reliable people who can perform these tasks meritoriously. A helicopter parent has always made choices for their children, and hence they are not in a position to handle specific situations in the job market.
All in all, some positive aspects are associated with helicopter parenting especially when children are at a tender age. Parenting is crucial in forming a child’s character and facilitating their healthy development. According to Schifrin et al., a parental involvement which may take the form of cuddling and reading stories to children helps to achieve optimal child outcomes and strengthen the family bonds (2323). On the contrary, children who are brought up by parents who are barely there exhibit physical, cognitive and social delays which include attention deficits. It follows that helicopter parents help their children to have cognitive abilities which translate to good academic performances. A study revealed that controlled intervention helps to increase a child’s intelligence, competency and exhibit few behavioral problems in school (Odenweller, Melanie, and Keith 410). The reason is that the parent is always calling the teacher to ask about the child’s performance and arranges for remedial classes in case of poor grades. But ultimately helicopter parents can aid well in these aspects of a child’s life.
In conclusion, helicopter parenting is a negative approach due to how it affects the child’s mental health and hinder their development of autonomy and independence as young adults. The children have a hard time making decisions on their own and forming social bonds in the future. All in all, when helicopter parenting is used in a child’s tender age, it helps to achieve academic success and good behavioral traits. It follows that finding a balance between involved parenting and strict parenting though difficult should be sought. The negative consequences of helicopter parenting should not be an excuse for parent’s inactive participation in their children’s lives. It is only harmful if the child is pushed to the limits; controlling helicopter parenting can be beneficial to both the parent and the child. There comes an age when the parent should let their children be independent, make decisions and face life on their own. Only then do they grow and learn.

Works Cited.
Cline, Foster, and Jim Fay. Parenting with love and logic: Teaching children responsibility. Tyndale House, 2014.
“”Helicopter Parents” Stir Up Anxiety, Depression: IU News Room: Indiana University.” Newsinfo.Iu.Edu, 2018, http://newsinfo.iu.edu/web/page/normal/6073.html.
Odenweller, Kelly G., Melanie Booth-Butterfield, and Keith Weber. “Investigating helicopter parenting, family environments, and relational outcomes for millennials.” Communication Studies 65.4 (2014): 407-425.
Schiffrin, Holly H., et al. “Intensive parenting: does it have the desired impact on child outcomes?.” Journal of Child and Family Studies 24.8 (2015): 2322-2331.