Parents naturally try to closely orchestrate or micro-manage the experiences of their children, hence the term “helicopter parent”. A writer from the New York Times was quoted as saying that presently “all parenting is anxious parenting”. Helicopter parenting has even given way to “lawnmower parenting” – where the parent “mows down” all the obstacles in their child’s life.

Parental estrangement from their adult children is a current phenomenon. A common theme is children who have been raised in fairly typical households move away from home and find it too stressful or troublesome to maintain a relationship with their parents.