LBoogie's The Real 411

The cultural phenomenon of the Helicopter Parent first surfaced in academic circles, when college admission officers began to notice a rise in parents trying to manipulate every aspect of the admission process from the essay to the interview. In fact helicopter parenting is now spilling over in to adult lives, where parents actually interfere in salary negotiations for their adult children’s first job.

In sports I think Helicoptering has been around much longer but there was no official moniker for it…folks would just say “Oh, that’s so and so’s father and he is just an asshole”. Remember the Texas cheerleader drama that made the news over a decade ago, where the mothers orchestrated all the drama and eventually one mother took a hit out on the rival cheerleaders mother.

As a parent I can confess I have a little Helicopter in me(more like a crop duster) and I had to work very hard to suppress it. By nature as a parent your first instinct is to protect your child against any and all harm, you want smooth out all bumps in the road. Anytime I felt like one of my sons was in some type of distress, I would kick into another gear physically and emotionally. Even though my twins are 24 year old grown men, I still get the twinges to launch into whirlee bird mode:) For example, my son Corey told me that was offered a modeling gig for Gucci underwear at a fall fashion show in Miami…of course I am proud that he would be considered for the job but heli-mom mode kicked in, if my baby boy is going to be walking the catwalk in some drawers every hoochie, queen and cougar is going to be all over him and I AIN’T GOING FOR it, I need to be there to regulated that drama. Of course we had a good laugh about it and he wants me to be there and I want to be there for him, but in stealth mode of course.

HELICOPTER PARENTS IN GIRLS BASKETBALL

As I travel the basketball universe from gym to gym I am just totally blown by the vibe of parents today, it goes beyond being a fan and a supportive parent. Helicopter Parenting is seeping into the girls game and slowly but surely it is eroding the structure. There is a certain innate aura that resonates from the Helicopters…we have all seen them in action…they stomp up and down the sidelines, they constantly yell instructions at their daughter, usually something like “Don’t pass anymore to Suzy, she sucks”, “Just come down and get yours”, “Don’t worry about what your coach says, he is an idiot, you listen to me”(hmm but you put her on the team!!!). They pull their daughter out of huddles to instruct her, they sit behind the bench barking instructions. After the game, they are either blowing a gasket at their kid, huffy and puffy and stomping out of the gym, standing in the shadows waiting to get at the coach or starting a fight with another teammates parents because their daughter didn’t pass the ball.
These are just a few of the symptoms of a Helicopter parent and in the my next post I will explore it in more detail.

A Blackhawk helicopter is a military super helicopter, that is used in tactical assaults. So it is safe to say that a Blackhawk Helicopter parent is the next level of Helicopter parent, they destroy any and everything around them, usually their daughter’s basketball career (when it is all said and done), the teams that she has played on, coaches and even her teammates. They take no prisoners as they go on their mission of getting their daughter all the basketball party favors, leaving a trail of destruction and collateral damage. Sadly, they have probably have severely scarred the relationship they had with their daughter. Years from now when she hangs up her sneakers and reflects back on her basketball experience, how will she remember it? That remains to be seen.

Acronym of the Week: FFT– Fake Father Trainers. Can usually be found in your local gym with a basketball drill book under their arm and the mindset that they know what is best for their daughter even though they:
A: Have never trained anyone
B: Barely made it off the bench in JV ball
C: Honestly think because he they are a male and she is a female he automatically knows more than her(even though his wife is the one that is really running shit at home)…so he defers his lack of control and domination over his wife to his daughter…Freud would have field day with this.

If I have offended anyone, GOOD because that means you are a real Helicopter parent and maybe just maybe you will think twice before you take off again.

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