Originally Posted by ngdawg

I have been fighting the urge to be a "helicopter parent" for 17 years and 14 days now.
I don't know why parents are like this. Growing up, I had a protective mother, but also one who let me be a kid. There were rules, we followed them; like coming home from playing when the street lights came on or if we were close enough, when mom rang a bell she had.
A friend and I had our babies 2 days apart. She made a point of nursing every 2 hours/ I fed'em when they were hungry. I let my toddlers tear up the house, toss their toys around, jump on the sofas/she had them clean up whatever they didn't play with at the moment and jump on the furniture??? Never. I let my kids watch Arthur and The Simpsons/she let them watch Sesame Street and thought my kids would be corrupted by the antics of Bart Simpson.
She kept a clean home, fed her kids only the healthiest of foods and arranged everything they did. Those kids were always sick! I hate housework, we both smoke, I fed them whatever they wanted and my kids had one illness each as toddlers. My son even got a perfect attendance award in elementary school. My daughter missed getting one for being out one day.
Somewhere, somehow, we've forgotten what's really important-a healthy mind. Creativity, freedom, learning what we can do by ourselves by pushing our own limits has been lost. There seems to be no middle road-I see kids that run wild, have no manners, are ignored by their parents (I want to smack those that let their kids run or skate through stores unattended like they're in a park) or kids that cower behind mommy if you so much as glance at them because mommy has it drilled into them that everything but herself is out to get the kid.
What's going to happen to kids like the one who's "allergic to all vegetables" when they have to actually make a real decision? God, that mother is a moron.....