When Parents Hover and Kids Don't Grow Up Is helicopter parenting starting to crash and burn? The expectations for modern parents just keep adding up: read to your baby, keep your 7-year-old busy with summer activities, help your teenager prep for the SATs. Does this growing involvement reflect an improving knowledge of child development - and open up a lifetime of opportunities for the children? Or are super-involved parents, with the calendars full of cello and language lessons, just creating a crop of spoiled "adultescents"?