This 16-year-old refused a $300,000 offer to drop out of high school and now runs his own AI company - Business Insider

The author (not pictured) didn't think she was a helicopter mom until her son pushed back on tracking. I don't think of myself as an overprotective parent. I began letting my kids stay home alone for short stints when they were around 10. I let them wander our neighborhood alone starting when they were 11 or 12. I don't heavily monitor their social lives or phone usage, nor do I check their grades constantly or make them give me access to their Google Classroom to monitor their schoolwork. But I don't do things the same way that my generation's parents did things. I'm Generation X, and in my generation, there were no "playdates. " Parents didn't track your grades, and they definitely didn't track your location. You'd be walking around the neighborhood alone at 6 or 7 years old, often for hours. Usually your parents had no idea where you were. The hope was that you'd come home sometime before dark. I didn't realize I was a helicopter parentWhen my youngest son turned 13, he started going out with friends on his own. Sometimes he'd take a friend's school bus home with them, and hang out for a few hours. Other times, he'd walk over to a friend's house, and then walk around town.

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