The Menendez Brothers: The Legacy of Helicopter Parents?

I just read the Crime Library article on them, and José Menendez was the ultimate helicopter parent. (He actually met with the president of Princeton to contest Lyle's plagiarism charges.) What will happen now that many of today's children also have helicopter parents?

• Why are you talking about them? You do realize that the James Holmes hearing is going on today? Can we please focus on that?

  http://i.imgur.com/3bEiX.jpg

• I can't tell if R1 is serious or parodying something...

• The vast majority of murderers do not have "helicopter parents" Actually, criminals are far more likely to come from broken homes. They are more likely to have a single parent or come from a foster home. There are actually statistics proving this, but of course there are zero statistics linking crime to "helicopter parents" You are just projecting your own hatred of "helicopter parents" to explain away murder Helicopter parents are a favorite "whipping boy" here at the datalounge, just like autistic people. Links between autism and violence, or between helicopter parents and violence, only exist in the minds of dataloungers.

• Helicopter parents - R3 must surely be one, to support them - are the bane of American society. They are, to the sane, completely indefensible.

• I see some scary helicoptering results as a college prof these days...not psychopath murdering scary, just shake my head kind of scary. Kids of these kinds of parents have no ability to handle ambiguity or challenges. It's so obvious.

• There is always a weird, creepy, incestuous vibe to helicopter parents. I'll take the neglectful crackheads any day.

• "Helicopter parents - R3 must surely be one, to support them - are the bane of American society." How stupid are you? I wasn't "supporting" them, I was pointing out OP's stupidity in blaming "helicopter parents" for murder.

• "I'll take the neglectful crackheads any day." ROFLMAO. No, you wouldn't.

• Last summer my sister and her family stayed in a hotel in Lake Tahoe. Her 14 year old daughter was caught on the roof drinking with some older guys. They were kicked out. I asked my mom how my sister reacted (meaning to her daughter's behavior.). My mother said, "She thought that kicking them out was way too harsh and extreme so she went to the manager to discuss it and ask if they could remain. The manager refused to talk to her.". NOTHING to hold her daughter accountable. I was disgusted, but good for the manager for refusing the bullshit.

• I think that the actual problem with the Menendez brothers was childhood mental and sexual abuse, not helicopter parenting. Jose Menendez was reputed to be a child molester; he was involved in founding Menudo (that 80s hispanic boy group), and years later Ricky Martin, who was in Menudo, mentioned that Menendez had molested him too. That accusation went under in all the media hype, but it would explain why both sons were so disturbed. I mean, any family can produce one psychopath per generation, but two for two? Somethin' in the milk ain't clean.

• R7 isn't even worth responding to... The odd autistic reference makes it clear that he has some other agenda. I thought it was fairly conclusively that they had never been molested, R10? Still, Jose Menendez was clearly a monster... His work associates claimed that he was a screamer, among other things. Did Erik Menendez turn out gay?

• Jose Menendez might have been a monstrous parent but that molestation claim was the boys' "excuse" for murder. Then in their immense grief and sorrow, they immediately ran out and spent a lot of money.

  Retail therapy, hon

• There are subtle differences between a control freak parent, a helicopter parent, and a narcissistic parent. Some of us do not understand the distinctions.

• Define each, R13.

• Since most serial and spree killers are gay and/or adopted, it doesn't matter at all. Unless they suffer from that mental illness or were such awful children that their real parents abandoned them.