Helicopter Parents

Even the U.S. Army is no longer safe. Though Not even kidding, I encountered a couple of situations like this back when I was recruiting.

LOL…helicopter parents.

I have to admit - I was worried when we had our son so late in life. He is our one and probably only (been trying, but we are probably past the window of opportunity at our past mid-40s now)…so I worried that because we sort of center our world around him, that we would turn into helicopter parents. He’s now six years old.

My Dad (24 year Army veteran) paid me the ultimate compliment a couple of days ago while he was visiting. We were at a local lake and my son was trying out his very own sea kayak that I had bought him for Christmas…a really nice Perception Acadia Scout…a true kayak shape, not a barge of a rec kayak:

Anyway…I had him sit in the kayak (with his life jacket on) and had him grab his little kid size paddle and said “here you go…” and pushed him gently out into the water. I then climbed into my kayak and we went out paddling together and he quickly learned all the right strokes and how to hold the paddle and keep his hips square to water and not dig too deep.

We get back to shore and Kai goes running off down the shore, and my Dad says to me…“You know, that kid trusts you completely… He didn’t bat an eye at getting in that kayak, and didn’t worry one bit when you pushed him out into that water…”

I really hadn’t thought about it…but it was because we just do all the stuff we did before we had him (hiking, kayaking, climbing, camping, snorkeling…etc…). He doesn’t have many fears and we don’t hover over him. He gets dirty. He gets hurt. He falls on his own sword sometimes and learns from his experiences.

Maybe we didn’t screw him up. Maybe we won’t screw him up. LOL…although I’m sure there’s still time. :laughing:

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Have you guys taken him skiing yet? :smile:

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I seriously hope so, seeing as Beach and family live only a couple hours from great mountains to learn on.

Actually, we haven’t. We’ve been up around Beech Mountain…but only went snow tubing there. But we will definitely get him on skis next year.

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That my kid is more special syndrome is bad but so is the over scheduling of the kids these days. Most of my friends schedule their kids to death and never leave them any down time just to be a kid and not have to worry about some scheduled activity. Heck I see them running themselves ragged trying to get them to all these silly "activities’ just so they give the kids that elusive “perfect” childhood.

Wheels

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We just had a girl in the NC State Student Facebook group post a Gofundme page to pay for a $30 parking ticket that she got because she was “too lazy” (her words) to park in her normal spot and walk to the gym. Not sure why, but it seriously bugs me. A lot.

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My aunt and uncle are like that with their 4 kids- I seriously don’t know how they do it. I don’t remember being nearly as busy and run around when I was the age of those kids- Scouts, sports in 2 seasons, and piano lessons (that we rode our bikes to get to), and that was it.