Children may feel additional pressure and stress as a result of too much parental involvement in school. It's natural for a child to want to please his parents. The more you, as a parent, become involved in and appear personally affected by your child's educational progress, the more pressure and stress your child may feel. Any pressure to perform to a high standard should come from the child's independent desire to learn and achieve greatness. High performance for the sake of parental approval misses the point.
Certain methods of parental involvement in school can limit a child's ability to grow as a self-sufficient individual. For example, parents who take too active a part in a child's homework may ruin the chances of her figuring it out on her own. As your child grows and continues in her education, she'll need independent learning skills to succeed. Part of the process of learning such skills requires parents to let their children make mistakes and learn from them.
Parents who take an extremely active part in school activities may limit their child's ability to have privacy. For example, if parents take part in every volunteer opportunity, from giving art docent lessons to serving as a chaperone on field trips and at school dances, their children may feel reluctant to engage in normal social endeavors for fear of embarrassment. It's natural for children, especially as they become teenagers, to want to keep certain moments in their lives private from their parents. Parents should keep enough distance so their children feel trusted yet willing to engage in honest conversation when necessary.
Parents who become overly involved in their child's classroom activities may begin to interfere with the teacher's ability to do his job as he wishes. According to FamilyEducation.com, too much parent involvement occurs when parents "forget they're parents and begin thinking they're schoolteachers." It's important for parents to remember that the teacher is an educated, trained professional who needs a certain level of autonomy to perform his duties successfully. Unless a teacher's teaching method is harmful, parents should take care to assist but never overstep a teacher's professional position.