Failure is a part of life, but the fear of failure is reinforced by the extreme parenting that has become more common in the parents of today’s teenage generation. With increased instruction and coddling, parents have become like helicopters, constantly hovering over their children. It is this style of parenting that has attributed to the lack of responsibility given to the teenagers. These teenagers then head off to college with little experiences of responsibility and therefore unprepared for life on their own. The lack of responsibility must be changed and parents must learn to become less involved in the lives of their children giving them more space to grow on their own.

Parents must prepare their children for the reality of life outside of their home in order to help them develop into more prepared young adults. Dr. Robi Ludwig, a psychotherapist and regular contributor to popular news shows, believes if parents do not raise their children realistically, their child will grow up to be miserable when he or she sees that the world may not revolve around them. Rather than helping their children, these parents are actually harming their children mentally, leading to problems like depression.

Teenagers do not often receive the amount of responsibility and respect that they deserve because parents do not believe children can make all decisions on their own and then feel obligated to keep an eye on their children. As Dr. Brian Russell said in an interview with Fox News, the parents of today’s generation decided to raise their children with much more empathy and to keep a close eye on their children. Too much protection can lead to the child feeling as if he or she has a lack of freedom and that he or she is not trusted. According to Dr. Robert Epstein, the extension of the childhood and the desire to keep their teenagers under control as if they are young children leads to the feeling that teens have no control of their lives leading to harsh feelings, such as anger.

Parents cannot expect perfection from their children from day one. Failure is a part of everyone’s lives and learning from failure on their own is much more effective in the development of teenagers. Though parents may be attempting to help their children through coddling and overprotection, they are actually delaying the development of their teens. Therefore, it is the duty of the parents to change, and allow students to have a sense of responsibility. This may be in the form of putting a child in charge of staying on top of their grades by themselves without constantly checking or by putting them in charge of their own allowance and letting them spend their money on what they believe to be necessary. In any case, the parents must take a step back and decide whether or not their constant watch over their children is actually necessary. Teenagers cannot obtain more responsibility on their own, it must come from the parents who need to realize the fault in their ways and correct themselves.