Snowplow Parents 0

My mother, who retired from teaching over two decades ago, once said that the biggest change she had observed during her career was this:

When she started, if little Johnny got into trouble, the parent would call and say, “What did the little bastard do today?” (only she would never have said “bastard”).

By the time she retired, that same phone call would start, “How dare you mistreat my little darling. He didn’t do it.”

It appears to have gotten much worse.

A school official speaks out. A nugget:

Members of Generation X, born between 1965 and 1979, now constitute most parents of school-age children. As an educator, I can identify a typical Gen X parent immediately.

Gen Xers orchestrate every move of their preschoolers, from perfect play dates and obsessively healthy diets, to instructional flashcards and hypoallergenic socks.

Once school starts, Gen X parents may become upset to discover other students doing more advanced work than their own, demanding a meeting with the principal about why the teacher is “letting their child fall behind.” Of course the parents have done their research, identified the problem, and it’s clearly the school’s fault that their child is “underperforming” — in kindergarten.

Indeed, a Gen X parent holds her child’s self-esteem as something to be protected at any cost. Gone are the days of the “helicopter parent,” hovering obsessively to make sure little Taylor is prepared for success. Gen Xers are “snowplow parents,” knocking all potential obstacles out of their children’s paths to pack their young résumés with successes.

I have long thought that parents take themselves and their children far too seriously. If you get the kids to adulthood so that they can be responsible, moral, and functioning citizens and persons, that’s doing a damned good job. Anything else is gravy.

As someone–I wish I could remember who–once said to me, “When you’re raising kids, if you do one more thing right than you do wrong, you’re going to be a good parent.”