Helicopter Parenting

When we got a call from Anirud's school reporting that he got slightly injured at school, we expected him to make a big fuss about it and prepared ourselves for a whiny evening ahead. He had some visible minor bruises on his forehead and on his nose. Apparently, he was swinging on his chair upside down (not sure how he did that, but I didn't want him to give a demo) and fell down with his face ending up in the ground. For some reason, he was quite pleased with himself for trying out these monkey tricks. We neither offered any consolation, nor any piece of advice - as we know that it will be as effective as telling a monkey not to jump / climb. In short, we ignored it. We do think that he is a very cautious bloke who is quite aware about the general hazards. So, we let him be what he is and face up these little things so that he'll learn to come out of it or live with it in due course.

Few weeks ago, Anirud hurt his elbow when he fell down on a hard surface as a result of running fast. I kept telling him about the times we fell down as kids and told him not to whine about it. Most of the kids raised in India in 80s will definitely have dozens of scars to show off from the numerous misadventures they had. Those were the times when helmets and kneecaps were unheard of. Going by the current day standards, we definitely lived in an age when toys could possibly kill you with no rounded corners or moulded plastic or warnings or disclaimers or whatever.

Personally, I feel that as parents we are very protective of our kid. It is not only the time, but also the country you live in shapes your mindset to a certain extent. A 5-year old living in India will probably be exposed to more realistic trips and falls, than his/her counterpart living in the West. I don't want any kid let alone Anirud to get hurt unnecessarily, but just trying not to get in to an extremely protective mode. Where do we draw the line?

P.S.: While typing this post, I bumped on this website (http://freerangekids.wordpress.com) and came across the term 'Helicopter Parent', which is explained as "It’s a sort of disparaging term for parents who believe their child is so vulnerable — to injury, to teasing, to disease and disappointment — that they have to sort of hover (like a helicopter) over the child, ready to swoop in if anything remotely 'bad' happens."