I'm not sure if citations needed has ever done an episode on articles like this, but as a parent and a leftist it's hard to not start noticing that nearly all parenting "experts" or "success" stories seem to basically boil down to people 'richsplaining' how to raise your kids into successful CEOs and career paths.

I find this incredibly frustrating because this bassically accepts as a framework that your kid becoming a CEO is an inarguably laudable goal, rarely if ever asks questions about how psychologically well adjusted they are as people, and perhaps most importantly never addresses the elephant in the room of the role class plays.

I feel like my entire life, in basically every form of media I've ever seen: helicopter parenting has been assumed as being wrong and harmful. These days it's hard for me not to ask if this isn't just an extension of the culture of "personal responsibility" and "pulling yourself up by your bootstraps."

  • pink_mist [she/her]
    ·
    2 years ago

    My friend Maye Musk, a successful model and the mother of Elon Musk, agrees on the harmful effects of helicopter parenting.

    She never checked her kids’ homework. She couldn’t. She was working five jobs to make ends meet.

    :doubt:

    • 7bicycles [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Slave Driver, Slave Trader, Child Slave Driver, Child Slave Driver, Mine Owner...I mean it adds up!

    • star_wraith [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Solid parenting advice would be DO THE EXACT OPPOSITE OF WHATEVER ELON MUSK'S PARENTS DID. Everything I've ever read about them is that they are absolute monsters that almost make me feel a twinge of sympathy for Elon.

      • UlyssesT
        ·
        edit-2
        24 days ago

        deleted by creator

        • star_wraith [he/him]
          ·
          2 years ago

          Elon has a trans kid who wants nothing to do with him and IIRC changed their last name.

          • UlyssesT
            ·
            edit-2
            24 days ago

            deleted by creator

    • ComradeLove [he/him, comrade/them]
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      When I read that sentence I gave up, I didn't know if I was reading satire or what.

      Wikipedia says:

      *Musk's family was wealthy during his youth.[16] His father was elected to the Pretoria City Council as a representative of the anti-apartheid Progressive Party, with his children reportedly sharing their father's dislike of apartheid.[7] His maternal grandfather, Joshua Haldeman, was an adventurous American-born Canadian who took his family on record-breaking journeys in a single-engine Bellanca airplane to Africa and Australia.[18][19][20] After his parents divorced in 1980, Musk mostly lived with his father.[10] Musk later regretted his decision as he has become estranged from his father.[21] He has a paternal half-sister and a half-brother.[18][22]

      In his biography, Ashlee Vance described Musk as an awkward and introverted child.[23] When Musk was 10, he developed an interest in computing and video games, so he brought a Commodore VIC-20[24][vague] and taught himself programming from a user manual. At age 12, he sold his BASIC-based game Blastar to PC and Office Technology magazine for approximately $500.[25][26]*

    • usernamesaredifficul [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I wouldn't classify helping a kid with their homework as helicopter parenting. Obviously don't do the homework for them but talking it through with them is pretty helpful as is making sure that they actually do it