Helicopter parent is a colloquial, late 20th and early 21st-century term for a parent who pays extremely close attention to their child's or children's experiences and problems, particularly at educational institutions. The term was originally coined by Foster W. Cline, M.D. and Jim Fay in their 1990 book Parenting with Love and Logic: Teaching Children Responsibility, although Dr. Haim Ginott mentions a teen who complains, "Mother hovers over me like a helicopter..." on page 18 of the bestselling book Between Parent & Teenager published in 1969. Helicopter parents are so named because, like helicopters, they hover closely overhead, rarely out of reach, whether their children need them or not. In Scandinavia, this phenomenon is known as curling parenthood and describes parents who attempt to sweep all obstacles out of the paths of their children. It is also called "overparenting". Parents try to resolve their child's problems, and try to stop them coming to harm by keeping them out of dangerous situations.

Lenore Skenazy writes a nationally syndicated column that appears in more than 100 papers through the Creators Syndicate. Her work offers commentary on everything from politics to family life to popular culture phenomena, and include My Dollar Store Addiction and Don't Call Me From Your Car Just Because You're Bored.

Skenazy was formerly a columnist for The New York Sun until it closed in 2008. She was with the New York Daily News for fourteen years before that, but was fired in December 2006. She previously worked for NPR and Mad Magazine. She was featured in the second episode of Bravo's series Tabloid Wars.

She coined the phrase "Free range kids". Skenazy's April 1, 2008 column in The New York Sun described her making the controversial decision to let her 9-year-old son take the New York City subway home alone. It unleashed a flood of reactions ranging from accusations of child abuse to fond memories of first-time subway trips and childhood freedom. The story was covered on The Today Show, Fox News, and MSNBC two days after the column appeared. Eventually newspapers and TV stations around the world covered it, too.

Dena Higley (born September 26, 1958) is an American writer who lives in Los Angeles, California. Her current non-fiction book Momaholic: Crazy Confessions of a Helicopter Parent was released April 14, 2012. Dena was previously the head writer of Days of our Lives and One Life to Live.

Days of our Lives

One Life to Live

Daytime Emmy Award

Writers Guild of America Award