Helicopter Parenting: Extreme Edition

"Rainbow" (rainbeaux)
12/28/2018 at 07:14 • Filed to: None

I was behind this poor individual this morning. Imagine coming home and hearing your dad say, “ So, you didn’t use your turn signal on Main Street today, huh?” This is just weird.

DISCUSSION (35)

Maxima Speed > Rainbow
12/28/2018 at 07:22

If I had one it would “fall off”. Don’t know dad, guess the glue was cheap

Tekamul > Rainbow
12/28/2018 at 07:27

That's a very weird choice. A CAN Bus Data logger is <$100.

cbell04 > Rainbow
12/28/2018 at 07:29

“your kid beat me in 3 back to back stop light drag races"

OPPOsaurus WRX > Rainbow
12/28/2018 at 07:36

i wonder how many calls he got before realizing it was a bad idea to put his number on such a dumb bumper sticker

Longtime Lurker > Rainbow
12/28/2018 at 08:10

I'd bet the dad just likes swearing at people.

E90M3 > Rainbow
12/28/2018 at 08:10

Eh, GPS trackers have been around for well over a decade now.

TheRealBicycleBuck > Rainbow
12/28/2018 at 08:35

Try growing up in the country. It was 5.5 miles from the school to home and most of the drive was on a 2-lane road. My mom worked an hour away, so I thought I was on my own after school. One day after school , I passed someone on the way home who I thought was going way too slow. My mom called me from work not long after I got home to chew me out for driving too fast.

So, in a time span of ten minutes, I was spotted, I was reported, and I was in trouble with my mom who was still at work an hour away. No bumper sticker required.

Nibby > Rainbow
12/28/2018 at 08:39

text the dad shitty dad jokes

Chuckles > Rainbow
12/28/2018 at 08:53

I actually don’t hate it, from a deterrent perspective. Hopefully it keeps the kid from doing dumb stuff, and the dad could set it to go to a voicemail that he doesn’t check.

This isn't helicopter parenting. A helicopter parent would either go everywhere with the kid or use a real time location tracker.

Sampsonite24-Earth's Least Likeliest Hero > OPPOsaurus WRX
12/28/2018 at 09:05

thats my thinking

Cash Rewards > Maxima Speed
12/28/2018 at 09:07

Do you think people become magically dumber once they have kids? I mean, they do, but once kids start sleeping through the night and the sleep deprivation wears off, we typically recover.

ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com > Nibby
12/28/2018 at 09:35

This feels like asked to be signed up for cat facts (assuming it's still a thing).

Nibby > ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com
12/28/2018 at 09:48

shop-teacher > Chuckles
12/28/2018 at 10:01

I bet they do have a location tracker on it.

shop-teacher > Rainbow
12/28/2018 at 10:04

Ugh, I hate crap like this. You have to teach your children how to live in the world ON THEIR OWN! You can’t do that hovering over them constantly , be it in person, or virtually, or with this stupid sticker.

Just Jeepin' > Tekamul
12/28/2018 at 10:04

A data logger won’t tell you the kid was tex ting while driving, or didn’t use the turn signal while changing lanes, etc.

Chuckles > shop-teacher
12/28/2018 at 10:05

They might. I’m just thinking back to my teenage driving years, and I know that I definitely would have behaved a bit better if my father’s phone number was on the back of my car.

One of the benefits of being childfree is that I never have to figure out how to handle this stuff in th e future. I have no idea how I would do it.

Just Jeepin' > Rainbow
12/28/2018 at 10:06

I wish every car had one of these. Would make my hobby much easier.

Tekamul > Just Jeepin'
12/28/2018 at 10:11

like I’d let my kid have a phone or a BMW

shop-teacher > Chuckles
12/28/2018 at 10:17

I do have children, and I would never do this to them. If you haven't taught them well enough to go out on their own, and make their own mistakes, then thats a failure to do the real parenting. Real parenting isn't watching over them every second, it's about teaching them to be on their own, and letting them go little by little. And yes, they will do dumb things, and make mistakes, but that's part of them growing up.

Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap > Rainbow
12/28/2018 at 10:20

I want to call the number and ask for a date.

Just Jeepin' > shop-teacher
12/28/2018 at 10:23

It’s possible to drive unsafely for years without any consequences, so having another feedback mechanism with more granularity than “crashed”/“didn’t crash” isn’t a terrible idea for young drivers.

Chuckles > shop-teacher
12/28/2018 at 10:25

I agree that you can’t watch over your kids forever, but I honestly have no problem with this sticker if you’re talking about a 16 year old that just got their license. Maybe 6 months in, take off the sticker. But i know that i did a lot of dumb stuff as a teenager and I’m lucky to have survived. Two of my classmates died in my senior year of high school from separate incidents of reckless driving. Not to say that a sticker would have saved them, but maybe they would have thought twice.

I'm generally against GPS trackers, but this sticker seems like a far less intrusive method of encouraging your children to behave.

shop-teacher > Just Jeepin'
12/28/2018 at 10:34

I disagree. In the big picture, this is teaching the kid that consequences come from parents, not from the world.

Ash78, voting early and often > Rainbow
12/28/2018 at 10:38

Hopefully the number just goes to an anonymous voicemail that says “Deal with your own problems, busybody!”

BigBlock440 > Just Jeepin'
12/28/2018 at 10:38

I have a cousin that drove like an idiot for years, went through 4 or 5 cars until his girlfriend’s dad recognized him on the road one day and chewed him out good. Overnight he became that person you don’t want to be stuck behind because it’ll add 10 minutes to your trip.

Just Jeepin' > shop-teacher
12/28/2018 at 10:38

I don’t think young drivers think that consequences come from anywhere , so I’ll take what I can get.

shop-teacher > Chuckles
12/28/2018 at 10:40

We all know kids who killed themselves being stupid. Either they weren't taught very well, or they were bound and determined to be reckless despite the consequences. No sticker is going to stop that. I would argue that in some ways, the sticker is actually more intrusive.

BigBlock440 > TheRealBicycleBuck
12/28/2018 at 10:42

It doesn’t end when you move out and have kids of your own either. My mom asked me a while back if I was “driving down the interstate Monday”, we were either heading to or from my daughter’s doctor appointment. She said I passed someone she knew and they thought I was going too fast. Presumably that someone is a 65-er, though I didn’t see anyone I recognized that would know my car so I have no idea who it would have been.

Chuckles > shop-teacher
12/28/2018 at 10:57

An app that allows a parent to monitor their kids’ every movement and informing them of their speed feels much more intrusive than a sticker that lets people call a number. If I was a teen driver and I was given the choice between GPS tracker or a bumper sticker, I know which one I'd choose and I think that the vast majority of teens would choose the sticker.

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > Rainbow
12/28/2018 at 12:22

I grew up in a small town in the middle of nowhere. 800 people. Not a typo. Eight hundred. I used my dad's truck for a while. It's still a well known vehicle and he hasn't had it in over ten years. And he's a well known member of the community. Everyone knows him. Even when I got my own car, everyone knew who I was. People would absolutely call him if they saw me do something dumb. The only difference here is intent to helicopter.

shop-teacher > Chuckles
12/28/2018 at 12:39

I honestly think, as a parent, if you feel the need to have either on your kid's car, then you haven't finished getting that kid ready to drive anyways.

Chuckles > shop-teacher
12/28/2018 at 12:48

That’s fine. My initial reaction was that I didn’t hate it, and I personally find it a lot less intrusive than using a GPS tracker to watch your child’s every move. I never said I was a fan. And it really doesn’t matter to me since like I said, I’m not a parent.

Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks > Rainbow
12/28/2018 at 15:01

I actually used to have a bumper sticker on quite a few of my Escorts:

“HOW’S MY DRIVING?
CALL: 1-800-444-4444 "

I changed the number every few months. It was always a real number, too. Sometimes it was an MCI ANAC circuit, sometimes it was a GSM codec test loop circuit, sometimes it was a A LDP circuit.

The Snowman > Rainbow
12/28/2018 at 18:25

I would like my dad to hear from everyone who thinks I'm a shit driver.