From 'Beta Mums' To 'Underparenting' – 2026 Is The Year Of Anti-Helicopter Parenting |
From 'Beta Mums' To 'Underparenting' – 2026 Is The Year Of Anti-Helicopter Parenting
Parental burnout is no joke. Could this be behind renewed interest in more laidback parenting styles?
Parents editor at HuffPost UK
Two new parenting terms arrived on my radar this month, and they’re both the antithesis to so-called ‘helicopter parenting’.
A helicopter parent is defined as someone who’s closely involved in their child’s life, but in an over-controlling way, particularly as far as education’s concerned.
Experts have been cautioning against this way of parenting for some time now – it’s not great for some aspects of kids’ development, it also seems like a recipe for burnout for all involved – so it’s perhaps no wonder then that 2026 is fast becoming the year of ‘underparenting’ and ‘Beta mums’.
Per Parents, the former approach “focuses on giving children more space to explore, make mistakes, and solve problems on........