Friday, August 1, 2014

Advice on Helicopter Parenting?

 

In this month’s issue of Northern Connection magazine, I started the conversation by wondering how on Earth, parents manage in this day and age when there are dangers around every corner – even via the computer, SMART Phone, “Live” gaming on a child’s game console – everywhere! How do you do it? How do you know who to trust?

On the computers and devices, you can set parental controls and install software such as Net Nanny http://www.netnanny.com/, but even those require diligent surveillance. A friend of my husband recently had to punish his middle-schooler by taking away all his electronics because his son re-configured his computer to get around all the precautions. (The friend confessed that it was tough, because on the inside, he was actually proud and impressed that his son was that tech-savvy).
And then, as I mentioned in the article, how do you know when to step back? So many college students have a very difficult freshman year because of a lack of self-reliance.

What do you think? Any recommendations, suggestions, additional concerns or frustrations that you would like to share? As always, I am eager to hear from you!