Does Gentrification Cause Helicopter Parenting?

Gentrification. Other people’s parenting. What more kvetch-worthy topics could a Brooklynite ask for? This week, a Next City article brought them together in a novel way, claiming that Park Slope parents’ anxious hovering can be blamed on gentrification.

“The most notorious urban helicopter parenting cultures have emerged from the most rapidly gentrifying areas,” writes Kathryn Jezer-Morton. “San Francisco and Brooklyn, two places where the cost of living has spiked especially dramatically, have become well known for their anxious, well-intentioned moms and dads.”

But can Brooklyn helicopter parenting really be blamed on gentrification?

As readers know, gentrification is the phenomenon where wealthier home buyers move into less-wealthy neighborhoods, raising property values and displacing lower-income residents.

In spite of her title, Jezer-Morton’s article isn’t really about gentrification. Rather, her true premise is that helicopter parents are born of severe economic pressures — the high cost of childcare, education and housing — and that these economic anxieties manifest themselves in being overly protective and concerned for a child’s success.

A more accurate title might have been “Why Raising Kids in Montreal Is Easier Than Raising Them in Brooklyn,” as Jezer-Morton, a Montreal resident and parent, brags about the Canadian city’s paid maternity leave, subsidized universal daycare and rent regulations — conditions she believes make the parents in her neighborhood more laid back and less helicopter-y than their Brooklyn counterparts.

Her comparison of three facets of Montreal and Brooklyn parenting is interesting to note:

Day Care: $300 a month in Montreal; $1,200 a month in Brooklyn
Rent Increases: $10-20 increase a year in Montreal;  $200 increase a year in Brooklyn
Parental Leave: 52 weeks of paid leave in Montreal; six weeks of unpaid leave in Brooklyn

But haven’t economic pressures always weighed on parents? Why would these factors create parents entitled to — as one Brooklyn father is quoted saying — “entitlement to physical space, to the soundscape and to the setting of agendas”?

Are You a Helicopter Parent? Blame Gentrification [Next City]