ABSTRACT
Helicopter Mom begins hovering when her child is in kindergarten and never lands on anyone but school people. Sometimes she actually starts much earlier, preschool or even sooner, hovering over the crib with flash cards. A favorite Helicopter Mom ploy to help a child avoid consequences is to insist that the child didn’t know what was expected. Regular communication makes it hard for a student or her parents to claim ignorance. By the same token, failing to inform a parent of a problem will indeed make it our problem—and rightly so. Keeping parents informed when their child is not being successful is part of professional duty. Helicopter Mom can be trying to a teacher, but think of how trying she also must be to a child struggling to balance roots and wings.
