Confessions of a Recovering Helicopter Parent I almost gave in. After all, when I went downstairs 20 minutes after waking him up, he was polite about the fact that he was still in bed. "I'm sorry, Mom. I fell back asleep, but I didn't mean to." How considerate of him to apologize for causing me to come back downstairs to check on him. We want to reward the character traits of politeness and considerateness in our children, don't we? So as he was pouring his cereal, and asking me if I could drive him to school because he needed to take a shower, and thought he would miss the bus, I almost said yes before I said no. (He really needed a shower.) I had a good reason to say no. I needed to get to work early, and it would take me at least 30 minutes to drive to his school and back. And that was the reason I gave him. I gave him a hint about speeding up his shower, and what do you know, in less than 10 minutes, he was dressed and had clean hair. And ready to go 5 minutes before his dad. Yay, me! I didn't inconvenience myself to let him off the hook for oversleeping. But would I have given in if I wasn't planning to go to work early? Hmmmm. I can hear those helicopter blades whirring...