Unfortunately, I think many people perceive parents of gifted kids as pushing and "helicoptering". What we know to be the real truth is that our kids have NEEDS that are outside of the norm, and getting these needs addressed is going to sometimes make us appear to be a helicopter parent.
Another thing that contributes to that view is that parents of gifted kids are often gifted themselves. And that means the parent may have a "rage to master", and in many cases knows more about gifted education than the school administrators. To me, it's just a need to know and understand, but I think many educators see that as meddling, pushing, etc.
In my opinion, an actual helicopter parent is one who is pushing for his/her own needs (as a parent) rather than what the child needs. That can be any parent of any child, so I'm sure there are helicopter parents of gifted children out there just as there are helicopter parents of non-gifted children.
What really drags me down is when non-parents start to point the "helicopter parenting" finger, when they have never raised a child at all and have no concept of responsibilities of a parent. I hear that a lot in my workplace. Ugh.
Christi
