Proud Helicopter Mom!

As much as I hate to admit it, I am a millennial parent. Albeit, I am old and part of the early generation of millennials known as the Oregon Trail Generation. We didn’t get internet until I was like fifteen and I was embarrassed to be the spoiled girl with a cell phone in high school so I would hide it at the bottom of my bag. So while I don’t entirely relate to all things millennial, (I can barely spell the word millennial, thank you, spell check) I am definitely parenting millennial style. I research everything and only want the best for my kids. 

I am super particular about their diets and safety and enrichment and you know what? I helicopter. I waited a long time to have babies, my whole life even. And gosh darn it, I’m going to helicopter the fuck out of my kids if it means keeping them safe. 

Where is my righteous indignation coming from? Well, we picked a lovely little preschool for Judah. It’s a nature preschool that’s Waldorf based and also prepares kids for public school. But this dreamy little preschool has done or rather not done a couple of things that raise some safety concerns. 

And you know what I’ve done? I’ve fretted over not wanting to be “that mom.” Because millennials are trashed constantly for everything that we do. How often do we hear “hes’s still rear facing? We didn’t even use car seats and you turned out okay?” Or “they didn’t have organic and you’re still breathing?” Am I right? But you know what? We know better. We’re doing better. We are mindfully making the choice to have children or not. And we’re going to do it right by putting just as much thought and effort as we put into our dogs. We’re not going to half ass it like our parents did because a lot of them had kids because that's just what you did.

Things are better now. Our kids aren't sliding around in the way back of a Ford Taurus wagon making faces and distracting the driver of the car behind them. Research has shown us a safer way to do things. 

This generation ahead of us is still trying to parent us and control us. I'm not talking about my parents; they're supportive and try to understand where we're coming from. I'm talking about the collective baby boomer generation. They can't seem to let go of telling us what to do and they're posting memes and nonsense all over the the social media about how much better they did things. To the point where I'm afraid to speak out about a legitimate safety concern because I see how millennial parents and "helicopter parents" are slammed every single day. That is seriously not okay.

Call me a helicopter all you want but if my kid is going to ride a bike, it’s going to be in a fucking helmet. Thank you very much. 

Share your favorite piece of unsolicited parenting nonsense in the comments!