'Not Just About Hovering': Soha Ali Khan Discusses Helicopter Parenting

Parenting often comes with the instinct to protect children from discomfort, failure and difficult experiences, but finding the balance between guidance and independence can be challenging. Soha Ali Khan recently explored the idea of helicopter parenting during a conversation with designer Simone Khambatta and businessman Dhruv Sayani on her podcast, All About Her. 

The discussion touched upon the tendency of parents to become overly involved in their children's lives and how this can affect their ability to make decisions independently. Soha said, "There's this term called helicopter parenta nd it's not just about hovering all the time. It's also about rescuing, as helicopters often are employed to do, and sort of swooping in sometimes before required and doing things for your child with all the good intention of protecting them." 

The actor asked whether being overly protective could prevent children from developing essential life skills. Simone admitted that she had definitely started as a helicopter parent. However, with time, she has learned to let her kids solve their problems on their own. 

"I started off as a helicopter parent for sure. What I realised is I was not raising an emotionally capable child. He was unable to deal with fights or being bullied; he also bullied others. He was just unable to deal with it because I was always there to call up the parent, sort it out, do all of that stuff and it always got resolved. But now, I'm actually talking to him about it, handling it in a much more mature manner. I am getting better and I feel like because of that my second child is so much more emotionally capable and that's not just because she's a girl and he's a boy." 

Simone shared that allowing children to face challenges while having honest conversations with them can help build their resilience. She added that parents constantly stepping in to solve their problems prevents them from learning how to handle difficult situations on their own.

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