Parenthood
There are four types of parents classified by Psychology; Consultant, Helicopter, Drill Sergeant, and the Hands – Off parent. In the movie Parenthood, Gil and Karen are the Consulting parents, Helen is the Helicopter parent, Nathan and Suzy are the Drill Sergeants, and Larry is the Hands – Off Parent.
The Consultant is also known as the love and logic parent who provides messages of personal worth and strength, and demonstrates to the child how to take care of self and be responsible. They provide a time frame in which a child may complete responsibilities and also provides and helps child explore alternatives and then allows child to make his/her own decision. Gil and Karen would always give their 3 kids what they never had growing up. They took their kids to a ball game and bought them merchandises. Gil decided to coach his sons little league team so he can try to keep his son happy. He also dressed as a cowboy for his son’s birthday party when the balloon making cowboy he ordered didn’t show up.
The Helicopter parent hovers over children and rescues them from the hostile world in which they live. They provide messages of weakness and low personal worth and also make excuses for the child, but complain about mishandled responsibilities. They also provide no structure, but complain, "After all I've done for you...", and whines and uses guilt: "When are you ever going to learn. I always have to clean up after you." Helen is soft on her kids; she always tries to do everything for them. Her son doesn’t talk to her and she doesn’t know what to do with him so she just lets him do whatever he’s doing every day. When she found that her daughter got married to her boyfriend behind her back, Helen didn’t show any sign of anger, and she let them stay in her home because she said it’s safer for her daughter.
The Drill Sergeant makes lots of demands and has lots of expectations about responsibility and provides messages of low personal worth and resistance.