• Do you pay very, very close attention to what your child is doing, and not doing, every day?
• Do you plan and schedule most of your child’s activities?
• Do you often do the homework that your child is supposed to do?
• If your child is at home and if you are away, do you call him (or whoever is at home) from your cell phone every hour to check what he is up to?

If your answer is ‘yes’ to all the questions, watch out, you are in a psychological danger zone - you could be a ‘Helicopter Parent’, actually causing more harm than good to your child! Foster W. Cline, M.D. and Jim Fay defined ‘Helicopter Parents’ in a section on "ineffective parenting styles" in their book Parenting with Love and Logic: Teaching Children Responsibility. A Helicopter Parent pays extremely close attention to his or her child's experiences and problems, particularly at educational institutions. Such a parent rushes to prevent any failure from befalling the child and will not let the child learn from his or her own mistakes. Like helicopters, such parents hover closely overhead, rarely out of reach, whether their children need them or not. There are worse terms: ‘Black Hawk Parents’ refers to those who cross the line from a mere excess of zeal to clearly unethical behavior, like writing their children’s essays for a competition. ‘Lawnmower Parents’ describes parents who attempt to mow down all obstacles, real or otherwise, in front of their children. In a nutshell, you are a Helicopter Parent if you:

• Feel ashamed when your child fails, or fails to meet your expectations in a test.
• Fight your child's battles for her, such as protesting an unfair grade or score in a test.
• Take over your child's projects and homework.
• Are preoccupied with the details of a child's activities, practices, schedules and performances.
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What Helicopter Parenting does to your child:
Parents may have the best of intentions, but overprotection has long-term consequences. Helicopter Parents usually don't allow their children to fail or succeed on their own. Experts say children need to learn how to cope with adversity to be effective in life.

What it does to you:
Being an over-involved parent may drive you nuts. Studies have reported that Helicopter Parents reported more sadness, negative beliefs about themselves, less joy and contentment, irrespective of whether their children were ‘succeeding’ or ‘failing’.

What you can do if you are a Helicopter Parent

Expand your care:
Try to include other children in your child’s class or school within your ‘I care’ limit. Volunteer in ways that don't stress you out. Why not involve yourself in an activity that benefits your child’s friends? Take them all out for a picnic and bestow your attention on everyone. The chances are that your child will be proud of you.

Help your child cope with anxiety:
If your child complains too often and wants you to act on his or her behalf, ask your child to come up with ideas for a more permanent solution or define the problem better. You could even ask the child to create a drawing of the problem. This gives the child a distraction, a purpose, something to do. She may not need your help in sorting out the issue.

Plan ahead:
If you are both working parents, study the school's calendar, figure out what they want you both to participate in and know when to take time off work.

Trust the teacher:
Work on the assumption that the teacher likes the children in her class. Don't assume bad things until they are proven. Teachers in schools work for crummy pay because they love what they do, so they are usually good. It's all about your attitude.

Don't take on your child's projects or home work:
Every parent is tempted to make his child's project the best one ever, but it's more important to let children learn how to do things on their own. A typical Helicopter Parent worries that if the child doesn’t do well in primary school, he wont do well in life later! There is no evidence to justify this anxiety.

Limit your curiosity to know what happened in school:
If your child is not as forthcoming about what's going on at the school, instead of grilling her, think in terms of 'Maybe I am pushing too much.' Don't barrage the class teacher with phone calls. Send an e-mail; if there is no response, follow up with an SMS and then only call.
(Sources: Wikipedia, Dallas Morning News)