Lawn mower parents, the teacher wrote, come from a good place but ultimately they aren’t doing kids any favors. “In raising children who have experienced minimal struggle, we are not creating a happier generation of kids. We are creating a generation that has no what idea what to do when they actually encounter struggle,” the teacher wrote. “A generation who panics or shuts down at the mere idea of failure. A generation for whom failure is far too painful, leaving them with coping mechanisms like addiction, blame, and internalization.” I took a deep breath through my nose. ‘Oh, I have one of those — I love mine, too,’ I said. But I’m pretty sure my eyes were saying, WHAT ON THIS ACTUAL EARTH?" Karen Fancher, a college professor who wrote about lawn mower parenting for the Pittsburgh City Moms Blog, wrote that she routinely has parents visit her during office hours — at a university — to discuss problems their grown children are having. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to being a mom or a dad, but this teacher’s post is a good reminder to reconsider the next time we feel the urge to rush in and fix something for our kids. Do they really need us to do that? Is the problem one that they can’t solve themselves? Will they grow from us helping them solve it? If the answer to those questions is no, it might be the perfect time to stop mowing and let them learn how to take care of and advocate for themselves.
