For my paradigm shift project, one idea I had was the concept of ‘helicopter parenting’. Most people know that some parents can be a bit controlling and make decisions for you, and many parents do that to some extent, but even just 50 years ago, this was not the case. Many older adults might describe their childhoods as ‘wild’ and ‘unrestricted’, but most teenagers and young adults would not use the same descriptors. Parents have become increasingly more involved in their children’s lives, from choosing which sports they will play in elementary school to practically choosing a college for them their senior year of high school. Even this past weekend (parents and families weekend), I noticed a lot of this with parents dragging around their students and not letting them live independently.
Society has shifted from parents letting their children go off on their own and be independent to parents being overly cautious and sometimes controlling every aspect of their children’s lives. It would be incredibly interesting to research the root causes of this movement and exactly how widespread it is, as this is a major societal change that might not be noticed too much due to how commonplace it seems to be.
The rise of the internet might be a major contributing factor, because parents might unconsciously not like the idea of not knowing what their children are able to do and the people they are able to talk to on the internet; however, this societal change was most likely caused by many different factors happening all at once in the background. Studies show that this phenomenon started back in the 1980s, a time when the school system started changing and more stay at home moms started taking up jobs.
This shift in parenting styles has also contributed to changes in behavior and thinking in their children in the long run. Helicopter parenting doesn’t allow for a child to correctly develop the decision making part of their brain, impacting them emotionally and behaviorally in the long run, and this ultimately could affect them as adults, creating even more societal changes.
Both the increase in helicopter parenting and the societal changes caused by it makes this topic a possible candidate for my paradigm shift paper and Ted Talk.
Very interesting idea Erica. I definitely can see this phenomenon of “helicopter parenting” in my day to day life through talking to friends and family members. While I personally would not consider my parents to be controlling, many people I grew up with definitely lacked the same independence I had, and the negative results of this are obvious. Good luck with your projects!
This is a really interesting topic that I actually want to hear more about. I think you have a strong paradigm shift because parenting styles back then definitely were more lax and less restrictive than the are currently. The factors as to why this shift occurs will also be fascinating and I think you have a really good idea here.
I believe this will be a good topic to focus on because as you said it is commonplace among society now. This kind of topic will easily relate to your audience making it easier to explain your points on how you think it has shifted. The idea of helicopter parents is very prevalent in todays society I agree too, because when I hear about my parents, aunts, uncles, etc childhoods they are 10x different than my own because it just doesn’t seem like parents were around as much in the past for some reason. So I hope to learn more in the way you explore this role of parenting within your paradigm shift!