Meanings
- uncountableA parenting style characterized by overinvolvement in one's children's lives.
This isn't to say that helicopter parenting caused the crisis in self-regulation.
2018, Katherine Reynolds Lewis, The Good News About Bad Behavior: Why Kids Are Less Disciplined Than Ever — And What to Do About It, page 253 more examples
While many experts and educators perceive helicopter parenting as problematic because children are too dependent on their parents, some believe that helicopter parenting may benefit children because children report that they feel closer and more connected to their parents than previous generations.
2011, Mary Zeiss Stange, Carol K. Oyster, Jane E. Sloan, Encyclopedia of Women in Today's World - Volume 1, →ISBN, page 681Helicopter parenting is perceived as a recent phenomenon, though it encompasses many behaviors associated with classic parenting styles.
2014, Mary Yu Danico, Asian American Society: An Encyclopedia, →ISBNBut does contact with and support from parents hinder the move towards autonomy and independence, as many of the press articles and some of the psychological studies of "helicopter parenting" have suggested?
2017, Anne West, Jane Lewis, Helicopter Parenting and Boomerang Children: How Parents Support and Relate to Their Student and Co-Resident Graduate Children, →ISBN
Cite this entry
helicopter parenting. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/helicopter%20parenting
“helicopter parenting.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/helicopter%20parenting. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “helicopter parenting,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/helicopter%20parenting.
Source: helicopter parenting on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.