Commentary by Samuel Strait – March 10, 2022

It has been awhile since I first heard the term “Helicopter Mom”, yet
have had a hard time wrapping my mind around mother’s that would behave
in such a fashion.  It is often hard enough when young people break the
only ties they have ever known and gone off to college to start their
“new” life as a maturing adult.  Often these young people are for the
first time in their lives experiencing the world of independence and new
adventures, pushing the boundaries of their previous existence towards
newly revealed worlds.  For some it is a learning experience, some good
and some bad, but never the less an increase in their maturing portfolio.

Recently having read a couple of articles regarding students at both
University of Nevada Reno, and University of Wisconsin, Madison who were
protesting each State’s relaxation of Masking on College campuses.  It
wasn’t as though you could not continue to mask up that troubled the
protesting students, it was that others would be “allowed” to attend the
Universities “mask free” that drew their ire.  Apparently many young
people who attend University are no longer bent on stretching their
limits, rebelling against authority, and relishing their person being
securely controlled in the womb of higher authority.  Stunning, I had to
admit, what has happened to America’s rebellious youth, where have they
gone?

I decided to go to a source that for four decades has held court in
front of those formerly rebellious youth in the guise of a academic. 
The question posed was what has happened to those youth we considered
the next wave of inspiration and societal advancement?  How have they
for many been transformed into the robots seeking to be dominated by
today’s ruling classes?  Where has critical thinking, independent
spirit, and rebellion against “the man” gone?  My younger sister of four
decades of close contact with the college age youth of America replied,
“They never left home”.

She went on to explain that many in the last three generations of
American youth never have had to “grow up”.  They remain in the custody
of their parent’s home, “helicopter parents” who dictate and continue to
hoover over their children, refusing to allow them to spread their own
wings towards adulthood.  They remain trapped in the state of imminent
departure from the family home, their high school friends, and even
their high school sweet heart who is attending an entirely different
college.  Such students spend most of their college experience following
the dictates of their parents because “social media” keeps them on a
tight leash.  High school friends and “the girl friend” are constant
companions on weekends and holidays, where they flee home at every
opportunity. The college experience becomes an endless loop of high
school, no break a ways and independence to be found.

I often wondered what had happened when contact with the younger
generation produced all sorts of uttered leftist foolishness early on in
life.  My sister has experienced it in growing numbers for decades.  She
had the educator’s concern with how the Helicopter generations would
fare in the real world and I can state unequivocally not so well.  It is
not as though they have gotten any less intelligent, just more
indoctrinated towards the status quo.  The American public education
system once again.   Not much critical thinking or thinking of any kind
can be found in many of those brains, just the desire to remain hobbled
and immersed in their high school social media world well into an
uneventful future of being controlled willingly.   Those
liberal/progressive parents who have become their children’s version of
“helicopter parents” beware what you are doing to the youth of America. 
Set them free……