Children Are Reporting Helicopter Parenting During the Pandemic

Insights From Crisis Response Calls

As the pandemic ravages onward, I wonder about those little kids who pick up the phone to the crisis line and cry. I’m a voluntary crisis responder and sometimes, it breaks my heart to hear or read about the many things that kids sometimes tell me.

Sometimes, little kids tell me that they feel that mom and dad are super mad at them, which can be pretty normal for most people. Under normal circumstances, they would cool off, work on something else, and eventually work their way cautiously towards apologies and acceptance.

In the process of waiting for the cool-off period, they are scared. There is no one to soundboard off of, and they can’t ask their friends because no one is allowed to go visit people.

Their parents are still mad now, so they know that they can’t talk to mom or dad yet.

Prior to the pandemic, the kids would also do other things to help with their immediate stress and fear, like playing a small game, listening to music, visiting the community centre, or even their school.

When they fully cool off, the kids are generally okay, but now, because of the pandemic, they are stuck in their bedrooms, unsure of what to do. They live in close quarters. They are curled in a fetal position, under the warm security of many blankets, telling me things that they have apparently never uttered to anyone else before.

They don’t want their parents mad, but they need a shoulder to cry on, hence the panicked call or text to the crisis line. Some of them saw the number while looking up websites online. Others will see the phone number on the bottom of a cereal box or under their chocolate bar.

Back in the day, the crisis line, a non-profit, used to be prominently featured in government-funded public service announcements (PSA) on national television. Many corporate companies took this opportunity to place the phone number and texting service on their products.

Even today, some of the older generations can still find remnants of that older era, when they open certain boxed food items and see that phone number near the ingredients section.

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