As teenagers enter high school, they grow into independent individuals and slowly enter adulthood. That means hanging out with friends with little to no parental supervision. But what do parents do when his or her child refuses to answer the flood of “Where are you?” text messages and “Come home soon!” phone calls? Sometimes teenagers misplace their phones or do not have their phones accessible at all times. It only takes a few seconds to reply or call a parent to relieve their anxiety.

“It’s your [parents] job to worry about you,” freshman Laney Rodriguez said. “But you feel like they don’t trust you and that you don’t have freedom. Teen should prove it to them [parents] by telling the truth.”

Through the eyes of a teenager, parents, especially mothers, do not stop obsessing over the wellbeing and whereabouts of their child. However, in today’s society, the term “obsessive moms” has transformed into” helicopter moms”. These helicopter moms call their children constantly and send text messages ranging from casual to constant. Teenagers in response do not reply because they do not realize the anxiety their parents go through.

Mothers can pass their anxiety onto their children by being too engaged in their child’s activity, according to Psychology Today magazine. Over involvement can increase the child’s perception of threat, reduce the child’s perceived control over threat, increase avoidance of threat, and lead to worrying about potential threats. Very often, an anxious mother will become too involved with her child if she sees that the child might be distressed in a particular situation, but over involvement could increase a lack of confidence and feelings of failure in the child. The children grow up and become nervous mothers and fathers.

Sharon Standifird, a wife and mother from Houston, recently released an application called Ignore No More, which allows parents to freeze their teens phone if they do not respond back within their desired “reply time”. However, it gives the child access to 911. Originally, she created the app because her own son did not respond to her messages, creating a worrisome environment for Strandifird. Parents use a four digit code to lock and unlock their teenager’s phone and when their child responds the parent will unlock the phone. When the parent enters the secret code on their app, all of their teens apps will freeze, only angering the aggravated teenager even more.

“I feel as though it’s counterproductive and will only further disinterest a child from responding to the parent, assuming the child isn’t answering for some rebellious reason,” senior Ram Franqui said. “And if by chance he does respond because of this, in no way shape or form is it because of a genuine understanding of why communication is important, but rather because you’ve coerced them into doing so.”

Nevertheless, parents, whether they are helicopter moms or not, still worry about the safety of their children. With United States coming up to a rate of 24percent homicides, parents have a fear of the unknown.

“Your child is the most important thing in your life,” mother Alina Quintana said. “Without a child in your life, you have nothing left. Parents worry more about their children than they worry about themselves.”