Are You a Helicopter Parent, a Lawn Mower or Worse: A Payoff Parent?

It's time to come clean with yourself. Are you "that" parent (or grandparent)? The current arrests surrounding the college admissions scandal scream for us to look at ourselves in the mirror ... now.

Now don't get carried away, I'm not suggesting that you are guilty of paying off someone to get your child into college, I'm suggesting that you may be guilty of not letting your offspring stand on their own two feet.

This is such a phenomenon that there are actually formal definitions:

. "... a style of child rearing in which an overprotective mother or father discourages a child's independence by being too involved in the child's life: In typical helicopter parenting, a mother