History Main / HelicopterParents

Most parents want their children to be happy, healthy, and safe. Some, however, take this desire to not only an unreasonable level, but an obsession. These parents can be expected to get way more invested in their children's personal lives and interfere in their activities than what is healthy and/or necessary.

These are Helicopter Parents -- the kind of parents who hover over everything their child does like a helicopter (hence the name).

* In her memoir ''I'm Glad My Mom Died'', Creator/JennetteMcCurdy describes how her mother Debra pushed her into acting from age 6, sat in on all her many performance classes, "helped" her count calories from age 11, moved into her first apartment with her at age 19, and wouldn't let her shower alone until her late teens. There's a reason for that title, y'know?

In more "positive" cases, the parents might go out of their way to ensure their children's success by buying off competition, or otherwise use everything at their disposal to get rid of whatever obstacle may stand in the way of their children's dreams[[note]]This particular subtype is sometimes known as "curling parents" since like curling players they "sweep away" anything in their children's path.[[/note]]. They'd harass the child's school, university, or even workplace to make sure that their little darling gets the best grade/position/achievements/etc. that the institution can offer.

In more "positive" cases, the parents might go out of their way to ensure their children's success by buying off competition, or otherwise use everything at their disposal to get rid of whatever obstacle may stand in the way of their children's dreams. They'd harass the child's school, university, or even workplace to make sure that their little darling gets the best grade/position/achievements/etc. that the institution can offer.

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[[folder:Films -- Animation]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

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* In her memoir ''I'm Glad My Mom Died'', [[Creator/JennetteMcCurdy Jennette McCurdy]] describes how her mother Debra pushed her into acting from age 6, sat in on all her many performance classes, "helped" her count calories from age 11, moved into her first apartment with her at age 19, and wouldn't let her shower alone until her late teens. There's a reason for that title, y'know?

Most parents want their children to be happy, healthy, and safe. Some, however, take this desire to not only an unreasonable level, but an obsession. These parents can be expected to get way more invested in their children's personal lives and interfe in their activities than what is healthy and/or necessary.

* In her memoir ''I'm Glad My Mom Died'', [[Creator/JennetteMcurdy Jennette Mcurdy]] describes how her mother Debra pushed her into acting from age 6, sat in on all her many performance classes, "helped" her count calories from age 11, moved into her first apartment with her at age 19, and wouldn't let her shower alone until her late teens. There's a reason for that title, y'know?

* In her memoir ''I'm Glad My Mom Died'', {{Creator/JennetteMcurdy}} describes how her mother Debra pushed her into acting from age 6, sat in on all her many performance classes, "helped" her count calories from age 11, moved into her first apartment with her at age 19, and wouldn't let her shower alone until her late teens. There's a reason for that title, y'know?

* In her memoir ''I'm Glad My Mom Died'', Jeanette [=McCurdy=] describes how her mother Debra pushed her into acting from age 6, sat in on all her many performance classes, "helped" her count calories from age 11, moved into her first apartment with her at age 19, and wouldn't let her shower alone until her late teens. There's a reason for that title, y'know?

* In her memoir ''I'm Glad My Mom Died'', Jeanette [=McCurdy=] describes how her mother Debra pushed her into acting from age 6, sat in on all her many performance classes, "helped" her count calories from age 11, moved into her first apartment with her at age 19, and wouldn't let her shower alone until her late teens.

* In her memoir ''I'm Glad My Mom Died'', Jeanette [=McCurdy=] describes how her mother Debra pushed her into acting from age 6, sat in on all her many performance classes, "helped" her count calories from age 11, moved into her first apartment with her at age 19, and wouldn't let her shower alone until her late teens.

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Most parents want their children to be happy, healthy, and safe. Some, however, take this desire to obsessive levels, getting way more invested in their children's personal lives and interfering in their activities than what is healthy and/or necessary.

They might keep their children in a GildedCage and prevent them from playing with other kids out of concern that they might injure themselves while roughhousing. When they do let the child out of the house, they'd probably insist on accompanying them to look out for potential trouble, instead. If the family is rich enough, they might send a bodyguard (or an entire army of them!) to follow the kids around, or install bugs on their kids' stuff so that they can be kept in constant surveillance.

* VisualPun version in ''Webcomic/{{Insecticomics}}''. Obsidian exposites to Kickback how he and his wife Stryka tried to constantly guide their only child into being a great Vehicon general... only to have him skip Cybertron to become an ''actor''. Their son turns out to be Blackout from the Michael Bay ''Film/TransformersFilmSeries''. The joke is that both Obsidian and Blackout transform into VTOL craft and as such, Obsidian is literally a helicopter who ''is'' a parent, a parent ''to'' a helicopter, and this trope, for a ''double'' StealthPun.

Most parents want their children to be happy, healthy and safe. Some, however, take this desire to obsessive levels, getting way more invested in their children's personal lives and interfering in their activities than what is healthy and/or necessary.

These parents also tend to be overly picky about their child's [[FantasyForbiddingFather choice of hobby]] and social circle ([[ParentalMarriageVeto especially]] their LoveInterest), because they fear that the child would ruin their bright future and suffer by dabbling in "useless" hobbies or hanging out with the "wrong" crowd. On the flip-side, they might push their single adult children into an ArrangedMarriage, because they have an EveryoneMustBePaired mindset, and believe that the children will also suffer if they marry too late (or don't marry at all).

Often, these parents don't mean any harm. They ''are'' genuinely concerned about their child's well-being, but they go about expressing them [[ParentsAsPeople in the wrong ways]]. Nevertheless, they have a very rigid idea on what their child's ideal life should be like, and they are dead set to enforce said ideals on their offspring, ostensibly "for their own good". They seem to be under the impression that their child will inevitably get into some fatal mishap if they're not being watched 24/7. They also don't trust their child to make their own decisions about their career, education, etc. because, in their eyes, the child is too young to "know better" [[AlwaysAChildToParent (and this may apply even if the child is already an adult themselves)]].

However, there are times when the parents are genuinely self-absorbed {{Control Freak}}s. They see the children as mere extensions of their own ambition, goals, or unfulfilled dreams, and can't abide to think that the children might have their own desires that might conflict with those of the parents.

* ''Manga/CrayonShinchan'': Shijuro Ohara, father to recurring character Nanako Ohara, is extremely overprotective of his daughter and often worries too much about her, despite loving her very much. One of the comic stories have Nanako thinking she's being followed by a stalker only to find out that's actually a private investigator Shijuro hired to keep tabs on Nanako; another story had Nanako taking a part-time job at a sushi restaurant, only for Shijuro to spend literally half a day in said restaurant (eating over 100 plates of sushi in a row) to watch his daughter at work.

** Sirius's mother is very eager to mould him back into a proper Black heir, and wants him to marry so that he could learn responsibility. She would frequently barge into his house while he's unaware or send Kreacher to spy on him for her. She also tries to set him up with Colette, and arranges for situations where they could be together without him knowing her involvement. Orion eventually tells her to stop, lest she pushes him away instead.
** Colette has a FriendlessBackground because her Pureblood family are so worried about her mixing with the 'wrong sort' of people. At first, she was home-schooled, and when her parents finally allowed her to attend Beauxbaton, they make sure that she is surrounded by her relatives and family acquaintances so that she can't socialize with other people.
* ''Fanfic/InfinityTrainBlossomingTrail'': After the fiasco at the school's talent show, Professor Cerise kept Chloe in the Institute after school. But the problem with this is that he doesn't give her anything to do, doesn't pay attention to her unhappiness and that it's not really solving the problem because she still has to deal with bullies from school and has no one to talk to about her problems. Mr. Bradbury even points out to Ash that a suggestion to make Chloe go to counseling was downright ''refused'' and prevented Chloe from doing outside activities. This ends up ruining the Professor's reputation for good.

* ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'': There's never any doubt that Ming Lee loves her daughter Mei dearly, but she picks some very bad ways to show it. She's ''extremely'' overprotective, getting worried if Mei is so much as ten minutes late getting home from school. She pressures Mei to be a perfect straight-A student. She's openly concerned that Mei's chosen friends are "odd", and subtly nudges Mei away from them. After Mei's red panda transformation manifests, Ming starts spying on her daughter at school as well. All of this is out of genuine concern for Mei's well-being, but one way or another, Ming is responsible for most of the problems Mei faces during the film.

--> '''Bernadette:''' No. That's the sad part.

* ''Series/{{Castle}}'': "Kill the Messenger": The Wellesley Family, wealthy politicians and businessmen all, are controlled by [[EvilMatriarch Lennane Wellesley]], who manipulated every aspect of the family, from creating strict dress codes for the family, to preventing her son Winston from coming out of the closet publicly, to [[spoiler:orchestrating the murder of a young woman who was trying to reveal to Blake Wellesley that she was his illegitimate daughter from a one time fling with a campaign worker]]. Her hold on the family has been slipping due to the onset of dementia, causing her to reveal all quite freely to the police when questioned.

* ''Series/{{Extracurricular}}'': Gyu-ri's parents are {{control freak}}s who micromanage everything in her life from what she should eat and drink to her makeup and romantic partners choices. She detests them for their overbearing attitude that she imagines that she shot them dead in her ImagineSpot.
* ''Series/{{The Flash|2014}}'': Barry and Iris try to keep Nora out of everything to keep her safe, until Nora convinces them that she is not as reckless as before and genuinely believes she can help.

** ''VideoGame/CriminalCaseMysteriesOfThePast'': Barbara Coldwell, the murder victim of [[Recap/CriminalCaseMysteriesOfThePastCase52AStudyInPink Case 52]], apparently never allowed her daughter Verushka to make her own decisions, and prohibited her from marrying until she's twenty-five (the girl is twenty one). [[spoiler:This is what got her killed.]]

* ''VideoGame/TheWitcher3WildHunt:'' The player can make Geralt become this through his choices towards his apprentice Ciri. He considers her to be his surrogate daughter or sorts, but becoming too overprotective can result in a bad ending at the end of the story. [[spoiler:Holding her hand too much and not allowing her to think for herself will ultimately kill her as it leaves her without the confidence to take on a great threat which only she can attempt to thwart]].

* ''Webcomic/KevinAndKell'' calls them hovering parents, because some species are able to hover in-place. For example, Tammy is a moth that hovers over Angstrom, to a degree where the son's firefly light caused a fading on the underside of Tammy's wings.

** Marge Simpson, especially in [[{{Flanderization}} later seasons]]. She went from being a loving, prepared, down to earth mother who lectured Bart whenever he was up to his old tricks to overprotecting him and being paranoid about his well-being. In [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS13E8SweetsAndSourMarge "Sweets and Sour Marge"]], she enacts a sugar ''ban'' on the town of Springfield because she's worried that Lisa and Bart are getting to be as fat as their father.

They might keep their children in a GildedCage and prevent them from playing with other kids out of concern that they might injure themselves while roughhousing. When they do let the child out of the house, they'd probably insist on accompanying them look out for potential trouble, instead. If the family is rich enough, they might send a bodyguard (or an entire army of them!) to follow the kids around, or install bugs on their kids' stuff so that they can be kept in constant surveillance.

* Visual pun version in ''Webcomic/{{Insecticomics}}''. Obsidian exposits to Kickback how he and his wife Stryka tried to constantly guide their only child into being a great Vehicon general... only to have him skip Cybertron to become an ''actor''. Their son turns out to be Blackout from the Michael Bay ''Film/TransformersFilmSeries''. The joke is that both Obsidian and Blackout transform into VTOL craft and as such, Obsidian is literally a helicopter who ''is'' a parent, a parent ''to'' a helicopter, and this trope, for a ''double'' StealthPun.

* ''Series/{{Castle}}'': "Kill The Messenger": The Wellesley Family, wealthy politicians and businessmen all, are controlled by [[EvilMatriarch Lennane Wellesley]], who manipulated every aspect of the family, from creating strict dress codes for the family, to preventing her son Winston from coming out of the closet publicly, to [[spoiler:orchestrating the murder of a young woman who was trying to reveal to Blake Wellesley that she was his illegitimate daughter from a one time fling with a campaign worker]]. Her hold on the family has been slipping due to the onset of dementia, causing her to reveal all quite freely to the police when questioned.

* ''Series/TheFlash2014'': Barry and Iris try to keep Nora out of everything to keep her safe, until Nora convinces them that she is not as reckless as before and genuinely believes she can help.

* Visual pun version in ''Webcomic/{{Insecticomics}}''. Obsidian exposits to Kickback how he and his wife Stryka tried to constantly guide their only child into being a great Vehicon general... only to have him skip Cybertron to become an ''actor''. Their son turns out to be Blackout from the Michael Bay ''Film/TransformersFilmSeries''. The joke is that both Obsidian and Blackout transform into VTOL craft and as such, Obsidian is literally a helicopter who ''is'' a parent, a parent ''to'' a helicopter, and this trope, for a ''double'' StealthPun.

These parents also tend to be overly picky about their child's [[FantasyForbiddingFather choice of hobby]] and social circle ([[ParentalMarriageVeto especially]] their LoveInterest), because they fear that the child would ruin their bright future and suffer by dabbling in "useless" hobbies or hanging out with the "wrong" crowd. On the flip-side, they might push their single adult children into an ArrangedMarriage, because they have an EveryoneMustBePaired mindset, and believe that the children will also suffer if they marry too late (or not marry at all).

* ''Series/{{Castle}}'': "Kill The Messenger": The Wellesley Family, wealthy politicians and businessmen all, are controlled by [[EvilMatriarch Lennane Wellesley]], who manipulated every aspect of the family, from creating strict dress codes for the family, to preventing her son Winston from coming out of the closet publicly, to [[spoiler: orchestrating the murder of a young woman who was trying to reveal to Blake Wellesley that she was his illegitimate daughter from a one time fling with a campaign worker]]. Her hold on the family has been slipping due to the onset of dementia, causing her to reveal all quite freely to the police when questioned.

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[[folder:Films--Live-Action]]

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* ''WesternAnimation/{{Jellystone}}: Doggie Daddy admits more than once that almost his entire existence is based around taking care of his daughter, Augie. In "My Doggie Dave," he was mentally incapable of processing the idea of leaving Augie at home with a babysitter. He has shown a willingness to let Augie go to places he deems safe, such as school and the playground, but panics at the idea of her being even a few feet away from him otherwise in public.

-->'''Verushka:''' She spent my entire life lording over me and hoggin' the spotlight! I could never be my own person! [...] She tried to control my life to the last little bit!

Contrast ParentalNeglect and FreeRangeChildren, where the parenting style is too hands ''off''.