Why being a 'snowplough parent' could HARM your child: Mothers and fathers who clear every obstacle in their offspring's path risk making them 'anxious and dependent'



Snowplough parents who clear all obstacles can damage children

Expert David McCullough says they can be left anxious and dependent

Micromanaging children can also leave them unable to cope in real world



Most of us are familiar with the concept of the 'helicopter parent' who hovers anxiously over their child's every move.

But now a new parenting type has been identified - and experts say 'snowplough parents', who clear every obstacle from their child's path while piling on the pressure to achieve, can be every bit as damaging.

According to David McCullough, a teacher for 30 years and the author of a book on the subject, aggressive parenting is producing children who are 'anxious, dependent, narcissistic and careerist'.

Too much: Children whose parents pile on the pressure and insist on certain paths can be left anxious

Speaking to the Sunday Times, he also warned that children are becoming 'terrified of failure' and being turned into 'achievement machines' by their parents.

'From birth, they are strapped into the car seat and protected, driven and aimed in one direction,' he added.

'They [children] are compliant; they have given up self-determination and a willingness to explore their own interests.'

And the results of competitive parenting, from failure to settle into careers to dependence and even breakdown, can be devastating.

Not, says McCullough, that any of this is intended. 'If you do not get into one of the top 30 to 50 colleges, you are in for a very hard time in life - that's the thinking driving all this,' he explains.

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Snowplough parenting is becoming increasingly common in the UK as well as the US with nearly a quarter of teenagers supplied with tutors by their parents in a bid to boost their grades.

After school classes, intensive music lessons and an emphasis on besting the competition in team sports are all favourites of the snowplough parent, who also, on occasion, take charge of their children's homework.

As a result of increasing parental pressure, one in 10 university students suffers from mental health problems while others find themselves unable to cope without help from Mum and Dad and an army of private tutors.

'They besiege professors for extra lessons or expect a private tutor like they had when they were 17,' explains McCullough.

'In some cases, they just drop out, seeing failure as a failure of the support system around them and not as their failure.'

This, he argues in his new book You Are Not Special, has arisen from the modern 'cult of exceptionalism' and which has made children afraid to be average.

In it, he highlights examples of snowplough parenting, including that of a child being sent on a 120-mile bus journey every Saturday for a piano lesson and another who, when confronted with spelling mistakes by his teacher, replied: 'Mum must have missed those.'

Instead of succumbing to the temptation to micromanage children, McCullough says that parents should try taking a step back.

'Try as much as possible to give children free rein,' he advises. 'Let them follow their own passions and curiosities without overweening interference every step of the way.

'Sometimes our kids take paths they shouldn't, sometimes they will make mistakes. That's OK.'