Outline: Attitudes to over-parenting

The three texts in your exam set express various attitudes to over-parenting, some of which positive, but most of which critical and negative. In what follows, we will look at each text at a time and outline the attitudes to over-parenting they present.

“Do ‘Helicopter Moms’ Do More Harm Than Good?”

Text 1 expresses both positive and negative attitudes to over-parenting.

The positive attitudes are expressed by Robyn Lewis, a mother who engages in over-parenting, but also by her children, two young men who are in college.

According to her sons, Brendan and Ethan, their mother’s over-parenting makes them feel grateful and helps them in their development: “And Brendan and Ethan both say they’re grateful for their mom’s efforts on their behalf. “She wants to make sure that I do it well, […] and it’s all because, you know, she cares,…”” (ll. 12-14)

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“A mother steps back from the pull of over-parenting”

Text 2 is an article from the Internet by Bethany Young Hardy published in 2010. It appeared for the first time on the website of The Christian Science Monitor.

The article presents the personal opinion of the author on over-parenting, based on her experience with her three-year-old boy, Kian.

The author’s attitude to over-parenting or being a helicopter mom has changed over time.

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“Over-parenting is the curse of our time”

Text 3 is an article by Johann Hari, published in The Independent, in 2008. The article presents an explicitly critical attitude to over-parenting which is underlined from the heading, which associates this trend with a “curse”.

While the author presents her criticism and arguments against over-parenting, she also supports her view with statistics and resorts to the opinion of experts.

The author views over-parenting in Britain with irony and sarcasm: “They are the after-effects of Britain’s helicopter parents, who hover over their kids, ready to swoop when any risk or stress or spontaneity strikes.” (ll. 2-4)

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