snowplow parents
parents who stop at nothing to help their child become successful
TRANSLATION
snowplow parents = Eltern, die extreme (und manchmal illegale) Methoden anwenden, um ihrem Kind zum Erfolg zu verhelfen
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
"Today’s “SNOWPLOW PARENTS” keep their children’s futures obstacle-free — even when it means crossing ethical and legal boundaries."
The New York Times, "How Parents Are Robbing Their Children of Adulthood"
Did you
know?
Snowplow parents
noun phrase
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ORIGIN
Snowplowing refers to a hyper-intensive parenting style which, like an efficient machine, clears any obstacles in a child's path to success and thereby avoids failure, frustration or lost opportunities.
This can involve parents booking their adult children's haircuts, texting their college kids to wake them up so they don't sleep through a test, and even calling their kids' employers.
In its criminal form, it means bribing examiners and paying admission officers to get children into elite colleges.
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SYNONYMS
snowplowing, lawn-mowing, bulldozing, helicopter parenting
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OLD FASHIONED
"Helicopter parenting", the practice of hovering anxiously near one's children, monitoring their every activity, is so 20th century," Claire Cain Miller and Jonah Engel Bromwich wrote in The New York Times.
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TALKING POINT
"Want more self-reliant, responsible kids? Try Selbständigkeit, the German way. The German practice of giving children more independence early on creates more resilient and responsible grownups, says this American mom."
NBC News
