Helicopter parents blamed for children still in the nest at 25

HELICOPTER parents who hover over their children and put them on a pedestal are to blame for them still living at home at 25, says an expert.

David Lancy believes parents praise their children too readily which does not adequately prepare them for modern life.

Young people believe they can keep doing ‘what’s exciting and wonderful’ – and end up ‘patchily employed’ and reliant on their parents by their mid-twenties. The Utah State University anthropologist said this results in their ‘failure to launch’.

Professor Lancy has examined childcare models across the world for his book, Raising Children: Surprising Insights from Other Cultures.

He told the Times Educational Supplement (TES) that our society’s way is ‘WEIRD’ – Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich and Democratic. Its worrying characteristics include the notion that children should never be unhappy by ‘raising each child as special and unique and patting them on the back for every achievement, to protect their self-esteem’.

He says other cultures make children ‘earn their specialness’. We should also look at more natural ways of rearing children in cultures such as Papua New Guinea where they learn by watching adults at work on farms or making things.

‘You have no idea of what a rich palette that is,’ he said. ‘TV or video games can’t touch it.’