The term “helicopter parent” describes the sort of parents who always must be intimately involved in the development of their children. This kind of parent seeks to prevent any harm from coming to them by hovering nearby, ready to swoop in at a moment’s notice to prevent any failure from befalling their kids.

But what happens when parents discover situations where they are helpless to protect their children? The Atlantic Monthly reports the story of an inadvertent tween girl and her father’s reaction:

A few days ago, an 11-year-old posted a video of herself responding to online critics with a foul-mouthed piece of little girl bravado. She was so profane and mildly amusing that she became, in Gawker’s words, a “microcelebrity among Internet tween scenesters.”

Soon, she was being harassed not just online, but in real life. Call girls and pizza deliveries began to show up at their home from the great electronic beyond.

Today, her father got involved. In some room with wall-to-wall carpeting, in some house near a mall, this father tried to protect his daughter from the pain the world can inflict. As she sat crying in the foreground, he kneeled behind her and roared into a webcam at the nameless, faceless forces who had reduced his daughter to tears.

We can understand why he would make his threats, full of false bravado, against the nameless and faceless Internet trolls who were bullying his daughter from the safety and comfort of their computer screens. Whether or not someone is a “helicopter parent”, we can understand their anger. The anonymity of the Internet and the ubiquity with which kids feel the liberty to share personal information presents problems for parents that were nearly unheard of a decade ago. Yet, these kind of threats probably do little to deter the kind of behavior that this girl’s father was ranting against.

When the challenges facing children are outside their parents’ power to prevent, what can they do? Have you ever faced similar concerns with your own children? If your child is being bullied, please check out this article: Cyber Bullying: What it is and what to do about it. And feel free to contact us if you prefer to talk privately about bullying issues.