Upbringing
From curling mom to submarine dad – an overview of parent types
As a child, you can often only marvel at what parents do in their upbringing
© Panthermedia / Imago Images
Parents don’t have it easy when it comes to parenting – and children certainly don’t. There is a catchphrase for every type of parenting style. An overview of some parent types.
Apparently, parents can do almost anything wrong when raising children. And even the offspring sometimes have a hard time – depending on the parenting style at home.
If you read articles on the subject, it quickly becomes clear: education is anything, but certainly not a relaxed affair. The public discourses often deal with extreme forms: Either the young people are not taken care of enough. Or the little ones are completely overprotected so that they mature into a “generation unable to live”, as a recent article in the “HNA” described, among others.
As adults, they then become people who get nothing baked because they have never learned at home how to tackle and solve a problem themselves. A horror that is certainly not the norm.
Modern education as a minefield
In the past, i.e. roughly in the last century, the “raven mother” in particular, who allegedly did not take enough care of her children – for example because she had a job, was known today, today there are many abusive expressions that contain all sorts of nuances in the describe education, but are not scientifically proven. Here is an overview of some of the prominent keywords.
curling parents
This type of guardian is a subgenus of the famous helicopter parent. As with the winter sport of curling, the parents scurry around in front of their children, figuratively speaking, and smooth their path, clearing away every obstacle before the child even notices and can remove it themselves. Curling parents are described in some articles as “even worse” than helicopter parents because children never learn to overcome difficulties themselves. The term was reportedly first used in Denmark.
helicopter parents
This type is probably the most well-known of the terms used to describe overprotective parents. Such parents circle over their children like a helicopter and make sure that everything is alright with them. So helicopter parents are somehow always close to the offspring and monitor their well-being.
Lawnmower Parents
This form of overprotection is used as a synonym for curling parents: like the garden tools of the same name, mum and dad mow all the obstacles out of the way for their children before they even notice the adversity and can think of a solution of their own.
Snowplow Parents
In fact, these adults do exactly the same as their curling or lawn mower counterparts. They just do it a little more aggressively, clearing away obstacles for their children with more oomph. Imagine a kind of Donald Trump who makes sure that his offspring are not bothered by any problem.
Raven Parents
This guy is actually totally out. Also because it has now been realized that the eponymous birds look after their offspring in a touching manner. People used to be called raven parents who – supposedly – neglected their children. Mothers in particular were given this title when they pursued other activities apart from raising children and were employed, for example, which was not very accepted here for a long time and did not correspond to the general role cliché.
Submarine Parents
Some traits of the former Raven parents have been preserved in the modern U-Boat parents. Like the nautical vehicle of the same name, these are at the diving station most of the time when it comes to upbringing and give their children a lot of freedom. They are invited to parents’ evenings in vain. Oftentimes, teachers fail across the board when attempting to contact such parents.
But the submarine parents are just invisible. But they are present nonetheless. This shows up with full force when something goes wrong with their children – it can be bad grades or the threat of not being promoted to a higher grade. In such cases, U-boat parents quickly show up, make teachers hell or threaten lawyers. Once the problem is solved with the crowbar, they dive back down.
Sources: “TZ“, “Munich Mercury“, “Swiss magazine“, “galaxy“, “HNA“
Read at stern +: The mother of three, Susie Allison, calls on parents to put their feet up more often and let their children play alone. She calls it “sittervising” and gets a lot of enthusiasm for it. A teacher explains why German parents should take this as an example.