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Over in the corner of the classroom, her mother is sitting with tissues, cough drops, water bottles and hand sanitizer waiting for the moment the cold and flu season begins amongst the five and six year olds. She whispers to the teacher she has to go to the restroom. The teacher gives her permission to go to the bathroom and her mother immediately rises from her chair and follows her daughter to the bathroom. She looks desperately towards her mother, begging silently for mom to please go back to the chair. Mom doesn't recognize the looks her daughter was giving and immediately begins to give instructions to her daughter. The daughter sighs endures her mother's hovering presence.

Seventeen years old and his mother still checks his homework every night. He has been in honors classes since freshman year and receives all A's and B's. He has a drivers license and is a safe driver, no tickets, no speeding, just a good, safe driver. He is involved in sports, but not in the parties that take place with alcohol and drugs. He has dated some girls, but hasn't gotten serious with anyone, nor has he had sex with anyone yet. Mom wants to know all the names of my friends and their parents names. If I am meeting a group of friends at the movies, I don't know for sure who all is going to be there. We just say come to the theaters if you can. We never know who all is going to be there until we arrive. Mom wants to know who I am texting, when I will be home, when I am leaving to come home and stops by school on a regular basis. Not to volunteer, just to check up on me. I know she loves me, but this is getting out of hand.

Helicopter parents tend to hover a bit too much. This issue is more than just an inconvenience to the child, but it really does constrict the amount of developmental growth the child can achieve. Let's look first at the five year old girl.

This little girl is wanting to be on her own at kindergarten. Her classmates arrive at school and say goodbye to their parents. When they leave their parents, the begin to develop friendships with their peers. They begin the exploration into who they are and what they want to be. The child begins to see and experience new independence. When a parent is constantly hovering over the child, the child doesn't try new experiences or aren't allowed to achieve success in the independent steps. This child will do one of two options: give up and let mom continue to do for her and lose her sense of independence and curiosity or spend

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