We are all familiar with the image of the lioness lovingly cleaning her cub, carrying him around in her mouth and protecting him from any danger. As parents we can easily relate to this strong instinct to protect our young, but some parents take this idea too far. We are seeing more and more helicopter parents nowadays: parents who hover over their children and coddle them. This is an inconvenient truth especially for mothers. They prepare their teenage children’s meals, do their laundry, remind them of their appointments, solve difficult predicaments that they get themselves into and provide them with a constant flow of money. There are serious consequences for these children when they become adults. Significantly, they are prevented from maturing and learning important skills. They are told what religion or political party to follow, what type of subjects to study at school and how to dress. They lack coping abilities for independent living and some of them are not even taught the difference between right and wrong.
This issue is most evident when business owners reach retirement age and have to make the important decision about whether to sell their business or pass it on to the next generation. As an experienced consultant in a financial advisory firm, I have helped numerous helicopter parents, some of whom have insisted that their children had the same skills and knowledge as they had to make the business succeed. However, upon meeting their offspring it became very clear that the parents had been slow to delegate them tasks and as a result they were not experienced enough to take on the huge responsibility of running a business. This had serious repercussions for these parents as they were then forced to either appoint someone else to the position of CEO or else sell the business altogether. It is also not uncommon for farming families to be faced with the difficult decision of selling their business when the eldest son or daughter lacks the passion to manage the farm and instead opts for a nine to five job in the city.
I for one believe that these parents need to change the way they raise their children. If they fail to do this, then not only will the children be unable to function at work, but they may also suffer fromserious medical illnesses such as depression and anxiety disorders. Children need to develop strong critical thinking skills, leadership and innovative skills in order to meet daily challenges in the workplace. Unfortunately, I have been forced to advise several helicopter parents that their children are not suitable for the role of CEO as they lack the ability to make important decisions and are not confident enough to propose solutions to problems that arise. It is time for these parents to take a step back and let their children pick themselves up when they fall, learn from their own mistakes and release their creativity.
